Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., the new chairman of the House Budget Committee, announced over the weekend on Fox News Sunday that he would unveil a new Republican budget proposal that cuts over $4 trillion from government spending over the next 10 years, and hits everything from Social Security to Medicare, Medicaid, and discretionary spending.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ryan prepared the budget, to be released Tuesday, and that it essentially ends Medicare as a program that directly pays medical bills. Instead, according to Ryan, Americans currently under the age of 55 would find Medicare converted into a "premium support" system that would pay for coverage up to about $15,000 on a variety of insurance plans for individuals once they reached the eligibility age of 65.
Medicaid would be changed as well, and converted to a series of block grants intended to offer more flexibility to states. Significant cuts are also proposed for Social Security, although with fewer details on how those cuts are to be achieved.
Taxes will be affected, too, with the top tax rate to drop from 35% to 25% for both individuals and corporations. A temporary tax change is also planned that would allow U.S. multinational corporations to repatriate as much as $1 trillion in profits at a tax rate that has been greatly reduced.
