Rep. Ryan proposes radical solution to budget problem (**GASP** privatize SS, Medicare, Medicaid!)

Washington Post ^ | 2/07/10 | Ezra Klein

[Libloather]

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has proposed a radical budget plan involving privatization that the Congressional Budget Office says would wipe out our projected long-term deficits entirely. (J. Scott Applewhite/associated Press)

[PGalt]

HOORAY Paul Ryan!

HOORAY Paul Ryan!

HOORAY Paul Ryan!

[rodguy911]

We all want to know if Paul Ryan is Ronald Reagan Jr.?

[ChrisInAR]

Uh-oh..........he’s beginning to talk like a libertarian. We can’t have that now! < / sarc >

[mulligan]

Nothing radical about attempting, with an intelligent program, to help this Nation out of a deep hole. All others proposed, just dig the hole deeper.

[kcvl]

Ezra Klein - is a blogger for the Washington Post. He was formerly an associate editor for The American Prospect political magazine and an American liberal political blogger at the same publication.

Besides his online contributions, Klein worked on Howard Dean's primary campaign in Vermont in 2003

Hey, Butt-boy, Republicans have ideas too so sit down and shut up! Just because you don't agree with them doesn't mean they are radical. That title would belong to your hero, the Marxist in power.

[Lurker]

The last time I saw a mouth like that....

[gusopol3]

It’s dumb to try too much at once, it’s a political loser. It would be popular to talk about a federal hiring freeze and reconfiguring public employee entitlements, that would bend the budget curve effectively. The “stewards “ of these privatized programs would be, by sad experience, dishonest and self serving as they have thus far been.

[kabar]

It is time to roll back the New Deal.

[kabar]

A federal hiring freeze would do little to bend the budget curve. It is a mere pin prick. Entitlements make up almost 50% of the budget and if nothing is done by 2060, it will be over 70%. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older, twice what it is now. The entitlement programs represent an unfunded liability of close to $60 trillion.

By 2014, 45% of all Medicare expenditures will come from the General Fund.

[orinoco]

Just to inform you, Obama increased the number of federal employees last year by 2 million. So to get back to where we were last year we will have to downsize those 2 million government workers immediately and then start the process of cutting government even further. The communists now in power have overwhelmed the system and are betting that conservatives, once in power, will not significantly reduce the number of government employees.

Conservatives really need to show that they mean business and cut the size of government by 40 to 50 percent right away. Almost all the government does can be privatized.

[gusopol3]

But the very concept of these programs grew out of a vision of massive government, some idea of universal enrollment, etc. You can’t privatize that any more than you can the Navy. Beck’s guest Friday, a policy wonk from Manhattan Institute , seemed to think that especially the public employee pensions were a huge budgetary burden, and I ‘m not going to be convinced the idea of “30 years and out “ with 90 % pay for 2 million + federal employees is not a major part of future liabilities.

[gusopol3]

number of federal employees last year by 2 million.

Not by , to over .

[kabar]

You can’t privatize that any more than you can the Navy.

Yes you can. There are all kinds of proposals to privatize SS. It is fairly easy. They did it in the UK, Chile, and a host of other countries.

Health Savings Accounts Are Crucial to Medicare Reform

[kabar]

FYI: We have 60 million people on Medicaid and over 50 million on Medicare. Those numbers are increasing as the baby boom generation retires. The 2.13 million federal employees pale in comparison.

[gusopol3]

Health savings accounts are for working people, I can see that; that’s still all largely in the private sector any way. I’m not doubting you, but i’d like to see the socail security privatization plan in the UK though.

[kabar]

Any change over would be phased in. Did you read the entire article on HSA?

In FY2004, the expenditures of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF) are estimated to reach $52.8 billion, composed mostly of annuity payments to retirees and survivors. These expenditures will be 38% as large as the $137.6 billion paid as salary and wages to current employees. Expenditures from the retirement fund will increase over the next several years until they are about 45% as large as the payroll for current federal employees. After 2015, they will fall relative to payroll expenses. By 2050, expenditures from the retirement fund will be less than one-fourth as large as the government's wage and salary payments to current employees. Estimated expenditures from the CSRDF are equal to less than one-half percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004. Federal pension expenditures are expected to remain steady as a share of GDP for the next 15 years before declining from about 0.43% of GDP in 2020 to 0.20% by 2060.

[kabar]

Read this if you want to see the numbers on the entitlement programs: A SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees

[gusopol3]

I agree with you completely on health savings accounts. However , I would like to get to the ideas of how to “privatize” compulsory programs like Medicare and Social Security. The plan needs to be the same as for Obamacare— either you buy it, or you get fined or imprisoned.

[gusopol3]

Well, here’s one way that’s going to work itself out: people are going to be forced to delay retirement, continue to pay into the system until much closer to their check out date. For instance, me, who, if healthy will be able to retire at 75 in a body that by genetic heritage will last about 74 years, God willing.