WASHINGTON — Congress is preparing to leave for a two-week Spring break but not before the House votes Friday on the Republican proposal for a 2012 budget, a plan designed by Rep. Paul Ryan to chop more than $6.2 trillion in spending over 10 years. But Ryan, R-Wis., says the effort is an attempt to “preempt austerity” that will come by following the current budget route, which on its current trajectory adds $6.7 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
What we’re trying to do here is keep the social compact,” Ryan told an audience in Washington on Thursday. “A limited government, free enterprise system, a government that lives within its means, a government (that) keeps its promises to the most vulnerable in our society, to the seniors in our society, but a government that continues the idea of America, the characteristics of America, equal opportunity, upward mobility, prosperity.”According to Ryan’s plan, Medicare payments would no longer be paid by government sending out checks for medical bills, but would let people under age 55 choose among private insurance plans that the government would then supplement. People 55 and over would remain in the current system, but younger workers would receive subsidies that would steadily lose value over time. Ryan says those who can pay more will have to do so while lower income Americans will still be covered.
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