Dold supports plan to eliminate Medicare, privatize Social Security, raise taxes on middle class

DEERFIELD, IL – Yesterday, Republican Congressional Candidate Bob Dold announced his support for Rep. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future, a radical plan to privatize social security, eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, and raise taxes on the middle class.

“I will not support a proposal that hurts middle-class families and ends Social Security and Medicare as we know it,” said Democratic Candidate Dan Seals. “Older Americans have been investing in and counting on these programs for decades, and sticking them with the bill now is not only morally objectionable, it is fiscally irresponsible.”

Ryan’s proposal would:

· Raise taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes for multi-millionaires

· Privatize Medicare and Medicaid and gradually eliminate both programs

· Eliminate Children’s Health Insurance Program and replace it with vouchers that decline in value

· Privatize Social Security

· Institutionalize the federal government bailout of private investment account if the stock market crashes

· Even with all these drastic cuts to essential programs, the plan actually fails to control the debt.

Under the Republican budget plan, “about three-quarters of Americans — those with incomes between $20,000 and $200,000 — would face tax increases” according to the fiscally-conservative Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. CBPP concluded “The Ryan Proposal would abolish Medicare in its current form” and “would cut in half the taxes of the richest 1 percent of Americans.” They also state “as a result of its costly new tax cuts for the wealthy, the Ryan plan would allow the federal debt to continue rising in relation to the size of the economy for at least four decades.”

Seals’ plan focuses on private sector job growth, reducing the national debt, and using pay-as-you-go budgeting.

Dold has already suggested raising the retirement age and privatizing social security. His social security plan is identical to the Bush plan, which would cut benefits while adding more than $2 trillion to the national debt. The Ryan Roadmap includes even more drastic cuts to Social Security than the Bush plan did. Bush’s plan would cut 25.6% of FICA while Ryan’s plan would cut 7.1% more at 32.7%.

What others are saying:

– “A number of prominent Republicans, including presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty and House Minority Leader John Boehner, have explicitly declined to support the proposal. At the same time, GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell, Michael Steele, and Newt Gingrich have all released statements staunchly opposing cuts to Medicare—the same sort of cuts that are crucial to Ryan’s plan.” – Newsweek

–“Both the level of expected federal spending on Medicare and the uncertainty surrounding that spending would decline, but enrollees’ spending for health care and the uncertainty surrounding that spending would increase.” – Congressional Budget Office

– “In short, it is a budget plan that decimates Social Security and Medicare … the only thing new about this strategy, is the fact that Rep. Ryan isn’t shy about acknowledging that he believes seniors should foot the bill for our current economic nightmare…” – National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

– The Ryan plan is “nothing short of violent” – Ezra Klein, Washington Post

–“Six months after the Democrats’ proposed Medicare savings made Republicans shout bloody murder (literally: Death Panels), Rep. Paul Ryan is now proposing the program’s gradual extermination.” – Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

– “Federal taxes would be lower for the richest ten percent, and higher for all other income groups, than they would be if President Obama’s proposals were enacted.” – Citizens for Tax Justice