I got more information in the five minutes he spoke than I did in the countless speeches given by President Obama. Paul Ryan answered many of my questions.
From the transcript of the summit, I organized a list of the most crucial details from Congressman Ryan's talking points. Paul Ryan is currently serving his sixth term in Congress. He graduated from Miami University with degrees in economics and political science.
I would like to mention that Congressman Ryan stated that he works with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) every day. This is the one and only CBO and the CBO that was mentioned several times during the summit.
Below are points Paul Ryan made:
* Medicare has a $38 Trillion Unfunded Liability - empty promises to our parents' generation, our generation, our kids' generation.
* According to the CBO analysis, the bill does not control insurance costs, does not reduce deficits
* Medicare has a $38 trillion Unfunded Liability - that means empty promises to our parents' generation, our generation and our childrens' generation.
* According to the corrected, Congressional Budget Office analysis, the bill does not control insurance costs.
* Not only does the bill not control costs, insurance premiums will go up under the bill.
* The bill will not reduce the deficit as Harry Reid promised.
* The bill adds an enormous entitlement when we do not have the money to fund Medicare and Medicaid.
* The actual cost of this bill in 10 years is actually$2.3 trillion. It is not $847 billion as originally stated. (I will explain at the end)
* The bill takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offsets. But that money is really reserved for Social Security. So either they are double-counting them or they don't intend on paying those Social Security benefits.
* The bill takes $72 billion and claims money from the CLASS Act. That is the long-term care insurance program. It takes the money from premiums that are designed for that benefit and instead counts them as offsets.
* Regarding the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does -- it treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare, not to shore up Medicare solvency, but to spend on this new government program.
Congressman Ryan reminded the attendees about Harry Reid's claim that the bill would reduce the deficit. He explained how and why Harry Reid's calculations did not add up. Paul Ryan pulled the lid off this bill and for the first time, I saw how messed up this bill really was. It was far worse than I ever imagined (and I already thought it was terrible).
After endorsing the Congressional Budget Office for their good work, Paul Ryan explained that the CBO was given a document full of gimmicks with smoke and mirrors. There were no mistakes in the calculation, but the CBO was given inaccurate numbers to work with. Amounts were added twice or put in as offsets beforehand. So therefore the bottom line - cost of the bill and effect on the deficit is inaccurate.
And what does all this mean? We cannot afford this bill at this time. As it is now, we do not even have the money we need for Medicare. There is a lot of hidden taxes in the bill, taxes on little things like soda, medical equipment and drugs. However, the bill relies a great deal on the money cut from Medicare. The problem is, Medicare has NO MONEY.
It is a trick. It's a scheme. If the bill is passed, we just start paying extra taxes immediately. The taxes will not just affect rich people. Hidden taxes will be everywhere from soda to medical equipment.
The Democrat Party keeps calling the Republicans "the party of no". I am not even a Republican, but I respect that Republicans say "no" when it is fiscally impossible and worse, irresponsible.
After seven and a half hours of talking points, the Democrats left the summit already planning to use the controversial reconciliation process. The entire summit was all for show. We know that now.
It has been weeks since the summit and I have not seen Congressman Ryan quoted in any newspaper or mainstream-media news program.
In the immortal words of George Carlin, "The game is rigged. It's a big club and you're not in it. You and I are not in the big club."
Sources
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022504074.html
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