GOP Targets Deep Cuts to Health Programs

Proving yet again that in the minds of today's GOP many Americans are disposable trash that should be cast to their own devices rather than face the fact that our health care system is systemically flawed, the Congressional Republicans led by modern day Pharisee Paul Ryan is again seeking sharp new cuts to federal health and retirement programs.  One can only wonder whether some of the angry white elderly voters that reelected douche bags like Ryan may not soon be realizing that they foolishly voted against their own best interests.  All in all, it's the typical callousness and hypocrisy that are the most common aspects of today's Republican party which claims to be "pro-life" and against abortion yet which seeks to slash funding for poor children and seems increasingly happy to see grandma living off dry dog kibble in her old age.  Meanwhile, the wealthy are protected from any tax increases.  The Washington Post looks at the latest GOP attack on needed programs.  Here are highlights:

Anxiety is rising among House Republicans about a strategy of appeasement toward fiscal hard-liners that could require them to embrace not only the sequester but also sharp new cuts to federal health and retirement programs.

Letting the sequester hit was just the first step in a pact forged in January between conservative leaders and Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to keep the government open and the nation out of default. Now comes step 2: adopting a budget plan that would wipe out deficits entirely by 2023.

The strategy runs counter to warnings from prominent Republicans such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal against becoming “the party of austerity.” Just as GOP lawmakers are tacitly endorsing sequester cuts to the Pentagon, long a sacred cow, they fear the balanced-budget goal will force them to abandon a campaign pledge not to reduce Medicare benefits for those who are now 55 and older.  “I know a number of people who have real concerns about where this is going,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who said Medicare cuts targeting people as old as 58 are under discussion. 

GOP leaders say the strategy has been necessary to persuade their right wing to postpone a fight over the debt ceiling until this summer and to support a bill on the floor this week to fund the government through the end of September.

“There’s plenty of political peril associated with this. Whether we as a conference have the stomach to look at Medicare and Social Security spending will be the make-or-break part of the deal,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior member of the House Budget Committee. 

Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) plans to present the new framework next week and put it to a vote in the House before the Easter break. In a brief interview, he said the year-end “fiscal cliff” deal made balancing the budget easier than it would have been last year, when he offered a plan that wouldn’t balance the budget until nearly 2040. Independent analysts estimate that Ryan would have to cut about $100 billion more in 2023 to balance spending and revenue.

Democrats are salivating over the framework. Just as the pain of the sequester starts affecting schools, parks and airports, Democrats say, Republicans will be promoting a vision of extreme austerity that voters rejected in the 2012 presidential campaign — which featured Ryan as the GOP vice-presidential nominee.

“They are going to be doubling down on a budget that slashes investment in education and infrastructure, violates important commitments to our seniors and the middle class, and keeps tax breaks for the wealthiest people in the country,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee. “Doubling down on that is not just a mistake for the country but also bad politics.”

Neither Boehner nor House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had previously championed a balanced budget. In 2010, Boehner did not include it among the planks of a detailed campaign platform that helped the GOP win control of the House. In 2011, Cantor told reporters that a balanced budget was impossible “without severely impacting the benefits that current seniors and retirees are getting now.” 

There are other red flags. Republican aides said Ryan is certain to keep about $700 billion in Medicare cuts enacted as part of Obama’s health initiative, reductions that he and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney excoriated on the campaign trail. And Ryan has said he will keep more than $600 billion in tax increases approved Jan. 1. 

Meanwhile, Europe is suffering badly from the very sort of austerity that Ryan and the GOP are championing.  God forbid that the GOP can ever learn from the mistakes of others.