Ryan, Bill Flores talk turkey - health care not a loss leader

Washington – House budget honchos gave voters a glimpse of the future in approving a $3.5 trillion budget that defunds Obamacare.

Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis, joined Bill Flores of Texas' Dist. 17, R-Bryan, in making good on a campaign promise that swept conservatives into office in record numbers last November.

Aside from reshaping the two chief federal health programs for the elderly and the poor, Medicare and Medicaid, the proposed budget fulfills a second prong of the Republican economic litany. It cuts taxes from the top rate of 35 percent to 25 percent, thereby providing an economic stimulus that will hopefully create jobs.

Howls of protest arose on the other side of the aisle as top Democrats on the budget committee vented their spleens over Republican doctrine.

"It doesn't reform Medicare, it deforms and dismantles it," Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said of the GOP's budget. As for Medicaid, the budget "rips apart the safety net" for poor and older people, added the most senior member of the Democratic delegation to the House Budget Committee.

He characterized the tax cuts as corporate welfare while Democratic Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania called “unconscionable” the “abandonment” of health care for elderly and poor people.

A non-binding document, the budget is viewed by seasoned observers as an issue upon which both liberals and conservatives may rally their voting bases in the 2012 elections.

According to the Congressional budget office, the Republican approach to senior health care will be much more expensive for consumers because the private health insurance corporations charge much higher prices and pay much higher fees to doctors and hospitals rather than pass the costs on to taxpayers.

By 2030, the government payment would cover only about one-third of the typical retiree's total health care costs, the budget office said.

"We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls people to lives of complacencies and dependencies, into a permanent condition where they never get on their feet," said Rep. Ryan.

Domestic spending would be limited to $360 billion under the Republican plan, which
passed the committee along party lines. – 25 percent less than that which has been proposed by President Barack Obama.