New Budget, Old Tricks: Congressman Walden’s Tea Party Budget Ends Medicare Guarantee

Instead, it protects millionaires.

Congressman Greg Walden

(WASHINGTON DC) - Congressman Greg Walden and his Tea Party Republicans are up to their same old tricks, releasing a new Ryan budget today that ends the Medicare guarantee, raising costs for seniors, while protecting tax breaks for millionaires and Big Oil companies. Congressman Walden supported this radical Tea Party budget in the past and now is set to do it again.

The National Journal wrote that under this budget, “Medicare could look unrecognizable.” The AARP has said that similar budgets would “simply increase costs for beneficiaries while removing Medicare's promise of secure health coverage -- a guarantee that future seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.”

Will Congressman Walden continue to follow his radical Tea Party Members of Congress, or is he tired of the same old thing in Washington and ready to stand up for the middle class?

“Congressman Walden is set to vote for another Tea Party budget that puts millionaires ahead of the middle class, but voters are tired of this same old ideological agenda that ends the Medicare guarantee,” said Emily Bittner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The message couldn’t be clearer: Congressman Walden and his Republican colleagues want seniors and the middle class to be the first to pay while protecting tax breaks for big corporations and millionaires. Instead of offering a balanced approach that has a real chance to pass and could reduce our deficit, Congressman Walden is again choosing Tea Party ideological extremism over solutions and backing a budget that puts millionaires ahead of the middle class and seniors”

BACKGROUND

Republicans Supported Paul Ryan’s Radical Budgets. In 2011 and 2012, Republicans voted for Paul Ryan’s radical house budgets. [H Con Res 112, Vote #151, 3/29/12; H Con Res 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11]

Washington Post: “All Told, Ryan Would Slash Spending on Medicare, Medicaid.” According to the Washington Post: “But Ryan projects rapid savings thereafter, primarily from cuts to health care, which account for more than half of his total savings. All told, Ryan would slash spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the new Affordable Care Act health subsidies by $2.7 trillion over the next decade. Another $700 billion in savings would come from lower interest payments on a lower national debt.” [Washington Post, 3/12/13]

National Journal: “For Those Younger Than Age 55, Medicare Could Look Unrecognizable” If Ryan Budget Were Implemented. According to the National Journal: “And, for those younger than age 55, Medicare could look unrecognizable: People receive a fixed sum of money from the federal government to buy health insurance in their old age, regardless of the way inflation has caused health care costs to increase.” [National Journal, 3/10/13]

“The Drop in Marginal Tax Rates for Families with Incomes Over $400,000 Would be Even More Dramatic” Than Previous Ryan Budgets. According to the New York Times: “The budget, like last year’s, calls for a dramatically simplified tax system aimed at producing just two tax brackets, 10 percent and 25 percent. But because the top rate jumped in January from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, the drop in marginal tax rates for families with incomes over $400,000 would be even more dramatic than last year. Under the Ryan plan, the corporate tax rate would also fall, from 35 percent to 25 percent — although all those tax changes are supposed to be crafted to bring in the same amount of revenue as the current tax code, a tall order.” [New York Times, 3/12/13]

Source: Democratic National Campaign Committee