Republicans got elected by saying the word "jobs" a lot during the worst recession since the Great Depression, despite having voted against every job-creating program offered by the President or the Democrats in the last two years. Now with a grip on power, the Republicans want to sneak in their real anti-working families agenda.
Detailed analysis of House Republican economic proposals reveals an extreme agenda that few Americans would have knowingly voted for.
One of the most important items on their list is ending Medicare, a goal that will likely surprise even many Tea Party supporters who rallied against "government healthcare" in 2010.
Indeed only 13 Republican candidates for the House of Representatives actually signed onto a plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., to end Medicare through privatization during the election. Now, somehow this apparently unpopular idea (at election time) has catapulted onto the top of the GOP agenda since his colleagues installed him as "budget czar" after amending House rules to give budget authority to a single person.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Ryan's plan to end Medicare would begin by giving Medicare beneficiaries a voucher to buy health insurance in the private market where the rising cost of care would quickly outpace the value of the voucher. Within decades Medicare beneficiaries would be receiving about one-fourth the value of medical benefits they currently receive.
Left unexplained is how seniors would pay for additional costs of care created by the Republican plan. Further, the plan fails to detail how private health insurance costs would be kept under control. That isn't really a concur for Republican economic planners.
In fact, the combination of their plan to repeal health reform and Medicare privatization would lead to spiraling healthcare costs that would make your head spin and your savings account shrink.
In addition to ending Medicare, the Republican economic plan seeks to destroy the Social Security program. First, the Republicans would slash Social Security benefits by 16 percent and then a few years later by 28 percent – under the guise of restoring "solvency." (They are ignoring government reports on the program that show its ongoing fiscal strength for decades to come.)
The plan would also divert some $1.2 trillion in public funds to what have proven to be risky private retirement accounts, essentially ensuring that guaranteed Social Security would end and force seniors to rely on the good will of Wall Street bankers like the Lehman Brothers and investors like con artist Bernie Madoff to keep their money safe.
But don't worry, the Republican plan doesn't have it in for everybody. The plan calls for massive new tax cuts for the very rich and powerful corporations.
Republican economic plans would provide an average of $1.7 million more in tax breaks for those with income of about $3 million or more, while putting in jeopardy the retirement security of the vast majority of working families who now or will rely on Medicare and Social Security in their retirement.
On the other hand, raising taxes on millions of low-income and middle-income working families (through elimination of the "earned income tax credit") and on 4 million small businesses (through health reform repeal) seems to run counter their supposed no new taxes pledge.
