Cutting $4 Trillion
The Obama Deficit Commission has stated that we need to cut $4 trillion from the budget over the next 10 years.
There are two interesting things about this:
1) It is clearly not enough. Our debt is expected to increase $9 trillion over the next 10 years, possibly more because of Obamacare. Cutting $5 trillion simply decreases the massive increase: we would still be left begging China for funding in 2022
2) There is no way it will get passed. Every Democrat will be rolling out the crying Mom's and medicated Grandma's and show how human interest stories carry far more weight than little things like numbers or analysis
Anyway, here is the story:
![[BUDGET]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BK936A_BUDGE_NS_20110403183905.jpg)
There are two interesting things about this:
1) It is clearly not enough. Our debt is expected to increase $9 trillion over the next 10 years, possibly more because of Obamacare. Cutting $5 trillion simply decreases the massive increase: we would still be left begging China for funding in 2022
2) There is no way it will get passed. Every Democrat will be rolling out the crying Mom's and medicated Grandma's and show how human interest stories carry far more weight than little things like numbers or analysis
Anyway, here is the story:
GOP Aim: Cut $4 Trillion
Budget Plan Would Transform Medicare, Reset Budget Debate; Democrats Balk
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By NAFTALI BENDAVID
Republicans will present this week a 2012 budget proposal that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and transform the Medicare health program for the elderly, a move that will dramatically reshape the budget debate in Washington.
The budget has been prepared by Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and the new chairman of the House Budget Committee, and it represents the most complete attempt so far by Republicans to make good on their promises during the 2010 midterm elections to cut government spending and deficits.
Though Rep. Ryan based the Medicare portion of his budget on a previous plan created in collaboration with a Democrat, Alice Rivlin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and long-time budget expert, the current plan isn't likely to get much Democratic support. Instead, it will set up a broad debate over spending and the role of government heading into the 2012 general election.
The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills. Mr. Ryan and other conservatives say this is necessary because of the program's soaring costs. Medicare cost $396.5 billion in 2010 and is projected to rise to $502.8 billion in 2016. At that pace, spending on the program would have doubled between 2002 and 2016.
Mr. Ryan's proposal would apply to those currently under the age of 55, and for those Americans would convert Medicare into a "premium support" system. Participants from that group would choose from an array of private insurance plans when they reach 65 and become eligible, and the government would pay about the first $15,000 in premiums. Those who are poorer or less healthy would receive bigger payments than others.
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