Well, the GOP Budget Has Defined its Fiscal Priorities For America Alright…Middle-class Americans, Retirees, Children, People with Disabilities, and the Poor Foot the Bill So That Huge Corporations and the Wealthy Keep Tax Giveaways and Loopholes

Budget plans are about setting priorities and in a grander sense defining the nation’s values.  By the look of next year’s proposed GOP House Budget, that means conservatives in Washington intend to double-down on an economic vision in which our dwindling middle-class, America’s retirees, people with disabilities, the poor and their families continue to do the heavy-lifting so that the richest 1% can keep their tax breaks and loopholes. 

Here’s our reaction from NCPSSM President/CEO, Max Richtman:

“Once again, the House GOP’s budget would privatize Medicare with a voucher plan, leaving seniors and the disabled – some of our most vulnerable Americans – hostage to the whims of private insurance companies.  Over time, this will end traditional Medicare and make it harder for seniors to choose their own doctor.  Vouchers will not keep up with the increasing cost of health insurance… that is why seniors will pay more.  Incredibly, the GOP budget also tries to have it both ways by counting the savings in Medicare since the passage of health care reform and then repealing the law that delivered those same savings. Seniors need to pay careful attention to this next fact: if the GOP isn’t stopped from repealing healthcare reform, Medicare beneficiaries would immediately lose billions in prescription drug savings, wellness visits and preventative services with no out-of-pocket costs, and years of solvency will be lost to the Medicare program. 

Social Security disability beneficiaries are also targeted by the GOP’s refusal to allow a routine and temporary reallocation of part of the 6.2 percent Social Security tax rate to the Disability Insurance Trust Fund.  Instead, Republicans in the House would allow a 20% benefit cut for millions of disabled Americans unless there are broader Social Security benefit cuts or tax increases improving the solvency of the combined trust funds.  This GOP budget also call for the creation of commission to study what Republicans claim are ‘structural deficiencies’ in Social Security, even though the program has never missed a payment and currently has $2.8 trillion in its trust fund. 

No doubt, Congressional conservatives feel emboldened by the 2014 elections; however, I suggest the message voters sent wasn’t the message the GOP is touting in this new budget.  The American people do not support gutting Social Security and Medicare and targeting the middle-class to pay for tax cuts and loopholes for corporations and the wealthy – which is the foundation the House GOP budget plan is built upon.” … Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO