The New GOP Budget - What WONDERFUL News For Us!!

The CBO has done an initial analysis of the latest GOP budget proposed by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI).

First a caveat from the CBO:

CBO has not reviewed legislative language for the proposal, so this analysis does not represent a cost estimate for legislation that might implement the proposal. Rather, it is an assessment of the broad, long-term budgetary impacts of the proposal, with results spanning several decades and measured as a share of GDP

That being said, just guess what it found? Here we go:

Among other changes, the proposal would convert the current Medicare program to a system under which beneficiaries received premium support payments—payments that would be used to help pay the premiums for a private health insurance policy and would grow over time with overall consumer prices. The change would apply to people turning 65 beginning in 2022; beneficiaries who turn 65 before then would remain in the traditional Medicare program, with the option of converting to the new system. Additionally, the proposal would convert the matching payments that the federal government makes to states for Medicaid costs under current law into block grants of fixed dollar amounts beginning in 2013. Those amounts would grow over time with overall consumer prices and population growth. Further, the proposal would repeal the key provisions of the major 2010 health care legislation that deal with insurance coverage and certain other provisions. Under the proposal, mandatory spending for health care would be about 6 percent of GDP in 2030 and 2040 and about 5 percent in 2050, CBO estimates.

See that first part? That's the GOP doing away with Medicare. If you turn 65 in 2022 (or anytime thereafter) you'll get a voucher to help you pay for your private health insurance. If you can't afford the costs above that, tough nuggies.

TPM has more:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's initial analysis of the House GOP budget released today by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is filled with nuggets of bad news for Republicans.

In addition to acknowledging that seniors, disabled and elderly people would be hit with much higher out-of-pocket health care costs, the CBO finds that by the end of the 10-year budget window, public debt will actually be higher than it would be if the GOP just did nothing.

Under the so-called "extended baseline scenario" -- a.k.a. projections based on current law -- debt held by the public will grow to 67 percent of GDP by 2022. Under the GOP plan, public debt would reach 70 percent of GDP in the same window.

And:

If the current Medicare system were allowed to continue, CBO found that an average 65-year-old beneficiary's costs would be only 25 percent of what it'd be in the individual private insurance market. Under the GOP plan, those costs would jump to 68 percent.

Many thanks to our many friends in the GOP. I am sure they're all wonderful people just as I am sure they are members of a political party that's just proposed this cruel "let's erase Medicare to save it" budget.