Republicans spent their time on the Sunday news shows saying they were the only serious deficit reducers in town. If we didn’t support the Ryan budget plan, we apparently enjoyed watching our country circle the bowl. Since they had the corner on seriousness, they told us the special election in New York was lost because the Democrats demagogued the Medicare issue. GOP mouthpieces called Democratic characterizations of the Medicare provisions of the Ryan budget, “mediscare.” They ignored the generalities put forth in President Obama’s budget and told us Democrats were not serious because they did not have a budget. Additionally, they ignored the ongoing negotiations at the White House led by the Vice-President.
As the “no tax increase, my way or the highway,” GOP negotiates in bad faith with Democrats the seriousness of the Ryan budget seems to be all ours.
I am one of the millions of fourty-somethings in the 100 to 200-thousand net annual earnings category who have become very serious about the Ryan budget. We are serious because we need to plan for the plan. Many of us have taken a sober look at the Ryan plan. We have plowed through all sorts of projections about its real cost to us. Why are we so interested? We are interested because we only have ten or so years to adjust. For us, there are at least two ways to leave our kids with a debt. One is the deficit and the other is a medical bill. By tying Medicare spending to overall inflation and not healthcare inflation Ryan has made us nervous. We are nervous because we see those numbers radically diverging. Those diverging numbers may mean our kids have to pay for daddy’s health care. They may have to pay because, by definition, we will no longer be able to earn a living. While we can still earn a living, we need to begin funding a new unexpected medical slush fund to take care of the Ryan Difference.
Don’t get me wrong, the Ryan Difference may just be the cost of doing business in the world of deficit cutting. I for one am fully engaged and ready to do my part to save the country. I have known for years we could not put two wars, a tax cut, a bailout, a stimulus plan and a prescription benefit on the federal credit card. I understand spending at this rate is unsustainable. Whether or not those things were a worthy spend of my tax money is water over the dam at this point.
Or is it?
I read the Ryan plan and see sacrifices. I see sacrifices in government services. I see uncertainty in my retirement then I see a tax cut made permanent. Unless the Republican Party plans to deport me and others like me, they should at least try to engender some trust among my kind. Without trust, seriousness is called into question. Without seriousness, I ask what the Ryan plan accomplishes. Is it an opening bid? If so, why are the GOP mouthpieces telling us it is the only way? Should the Democrats produce a budget which sticks it to corporations and rich people and also claim it is the only way? Will the parties finally meet in the middle? Aren’t the parties already doing this at the White House?
Until the GOP submits a real budget which distributes the pain evenly, I wish they would quit inferring I am un-American because I can’t support a budget which kills a Medicare entitlement that is central to my whole retirement plan. Stop telling me you are saving my Medicare, when I know you are merely transferring money from my Medicare to rich people in the form of a tax cut. Don’t tell me that money is a tax cut for small business when the current system allows General Electric to pay no taxes and tax breaks for the oil companies. Don’t start the same old mess about “trickle-down” and how good it will be for me to move my money from Medicare to people who make jobs. Blaming the Democrats for your lack of a serious budget might make you feel better but it won’t win you any elections. It won’t because you need moderates like me to win elections. To many of us, your budget is less serious, certainly not fair and more of a political hack-job designed to score ideological points. Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way. The moderates in New York’s 26th are not buying what you are selling either.