Ryan's plan still exempts those 55 and over, the generation that wanted tax cuts and got them, from any restraint on its future increases in taxpayer-funded spending. All the sacrifices are foisted onto the increasingly poorer generations who are age 54 and younger, because those older demanded what they were unwilling to pay for. It's just like all those retroactive pension enhancements followed by Tier V and Tier VI. Just like the falling private sector wages generation by generation for those at the same age.
We have a budget crisis right now, not 20 years from now, because of the selfishness and entitlement of Generation Greed, not younger generations. And no, the problem isn't that younger generations deserve less. Every indicator shows they are in fact better behaved than those 30 years ago, and faced with higher expectations for what they will contribute and lower expectations about what they will receive.
Go on, Ryan. How about the inflation rate plus 1.5% — my presumed max average inflation-adjusted GDP growth when the U.S can no longer juice its economy by going deeper and deeper into debt — on Medicare starting right now?
And as for slashing the safety net benefits for working Americans to cut taxes on the wealthy, it is no different that NYC public employee unions slashing the public services they provide at higher tax levels to pay for their retroactive retirement increases. And in fact the money earned by the 1.0% is not earned either. It is due to political power in the boardroom and in Washington, as cronies take care of cronies. The market has nothing to do with it. No one is slashing the pay at the top to see how low it can go before there is a problem. Not even in the non-profit sector.
One more thing. Ryan plans to shift more of the costs of the needy onto the states. Does that mean Republican leaning states can meet those needs with a bus ticket to New York, as in the past? The 1996 welfare reform contained a provision to prevent that, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court and never spoken of again. Not by Democrats, not by Republicans, not by those down there, not by those up here.