Main Street

The New Republican Budget Plan

Meet the new Republican budget plan, same as the old Republican budget plan.

Privatize Social Security.

Privatize Medicare.

Raise the age of Medicare eligibility to 70.

Freeze nonsecurity spending until 2019.

All that, and a budget surplus at some point in the late 21st century.

We won the Social Security fight in 2005, the last time Republicans tried to privatize it. Since then, we’ve watched the stock market—the source they want people to rely entirely upon for their retirement—collapse. Imagine if Social Security had been privatized in 2005 and America’s retirement security had been shifted into the stock market by fall 2008. What would that have looked like?

Yet they’re back for another crack.

Medicare won’t just be privatized, either. It’ll be privatized with vouchers that grow more slowly than insurance costs. So that’s fantastic policy, too, and should be very popular among senior citizens and people who hope someday to become senior citizens.

This is nuts. It’s also what the Republican party wants, even when they try to pretend otherwise.

Tags: budget, Medicare, social security