Paul Ryan's financial plan for the U.S. has now been revealed in detail, and it is a real bunch of crap. First and foremost, it relies entirely on thoroughly discredited voodoo economics to show the increased revenues he forecasts. Cutting taxes on the rich so money would trickle down to us poor folks did not work for Reagan and it did not work George Bush.
One commenter on Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times today (well worth reading) summed up the financial crap in Ryan's plan nicely.
"As usual, these proposals are a giveaway to private interests. The medicare plan in particular does nothing more than line the pockets of the CEOs of the health care plans. One only has to look at their annual reports, to wonder just how they can pay their executives millions on bonuses and stock options. In several cases, tens of millions. The administrative costs are as much as 40% of the premiums. that is accomplished by rationing the actual health care a rate payer gets.
Yep, good old republicans again, looking out for the citizens. Of course those citizens are a small class of the general citizens that actually need a health care program.
Oh, and then there is the Trickle Down theory. Tax less and the rich will spend more. The richest 400 Americans have 20% of the wealth. The great majority of them pay a lower tax rate than the average tax payer. How does this happen? It happens because much of the very wealthy get their income from dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. You Mr. Citizen pay a higher rate on the interest from your meager savings account than the wealthy pay on their income.
Look up the Forbes 400 wealthy Americans, and see just how many of them actually put people top work with their billions in wealth. For instance, several of them are fund managers, who do indeed put people to work. Unfortunately those people are in China and India, where the jobs they eliminated with their leveraged buyouts went after they looted the parent companies. Several of these super rich are heirs to fortunes, and yes they do put people to work. They need maids, cooks, butlers, yacht crews, gardeners, and other domestic help for their estates, here and in other countries. Only two of them as far as I can see, actually run a major manufacturer, a company that employs thousands or contributes to the economy with investing in start ups new technology, or other enterprises. Oh they do give to the arts, and some foundations, but that is because of their social circle.
Again, we can see the influence money has on the conservatives. When you see one of their program, look and see who really benefits. I will give you odds it is not you."
Second, the Ryan plan guts Medicare almost completely. Vouchers simply add another level of costs and profits between patients and their finances. But most importantly, the Ryan plan does not do a damn thing to stop, or even better, reverse the trend in the cost of medical care in the U.S.
Without that, everything else is just blah, blah, blah.
Third, the Ryan plan does absolutely nothing to reduce the cost of the hundreds and hundreds of bases we operate all around the world. Those bases made sense when the USSR was the enemy. Now they just create friction between us and the rest of the world, and do nothing to help us deal with the new enemy, terrorists. Oh yes, they also put money in the pockets of some of the richest Americans.
Paul Ryan's plan for the future is as empty of content as the heads of my former party, the Republicans.
No comments:
Post a Comment