The reviews keep coming in for Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s daring deficit reduction plan. Not surprisingly, they are all over the spectrum.
Conservatives praised Ryan for his courage in attempting to save the nation from bankruptcy, while newly minted national Democratic Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz warned ominously that the Wisconsin Republican’s plans for a Medicare overhaul will lead to premature deaths of senior citizens.
Wow, what a dichotomy. And what a typically hyperbolic response in 21st Century American politics.
At The Daily Caller, they are saying that Ryan’s shocking budget plan, entitled the “Path to Prosperity,” offers a view of future U.S. finances in “apocalyptic terms,” with the nation ready to fall off a financial cliff.
Essentially, the Ryan plan does this: cuts federal spending by $6 trillion over 10 years; places caps on discretionary spending; overhauls Medicare for those under 55 by requiring them to accept a health insurance voucher, not traditional Medicare coverage, when they retire; converts the Medicare program into a block grant program that gives the states considerable leeway in how they provide health care for the poor and disabled; makes substantial cuts in discretionary spending for the working poor, education, senior services and a host of other well-established federal programs.
The Medicare voucher, which has drawn the bulk of the attention on Capitol Hill, would start out as an amount equal to the value of current Medicare coverage. It would then increase in value annually by less than the rate of inflation.
In one curious departure, this so-called courageous plan doesn’t touch Social Security.
The Daily Caller summarizes this way:
“The bold move by Ryan and House Republicans is by far the most significant action they have taken to embrace the wave of political energy over spending issues that propelled them into control of the House in November.
“But the budget faces an inevitably harsh reaction in the Democratic-controlled Senate and will have limited implications for what the government actually spends. As Ryan admits, it is a blueprint that begins the discussion rather than a proposal to change the actual law.
“Ryan … undergirds his argument with a series of charts that aim to show how increased government spending, especially from Medicare and Medicaid, are driving massive deficits rather than a lack of revenue from taxes.
“One shows that under current law spending by the federal government as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is slated for a long climb up from around 20 percent to 80 percent in 2080.
“Another shows that under current law entitlement spending will, in 2050, eat up all tax revenues if taxes remain level as a percentage of the economy.”
Rep. Sander Levin, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, pulled no punches in blasting the Ryan plan.
 “The Republicans are being dishonest about what they’re up to with this reckless budget. They are aiming to destroy Medicare for future generations – not save it. Future seniors would be given a voucher and then told they’re on their own.
“Republicans’ message to Americans is clear: Forget how much you’ve paid into a Medicare system that ensures you can get the medical care you deserve during retirement. Under this Republican plan, if you develop a major medical problem and your voucher runs out, so be it.”
Calling the Ryan offering “A Path To Poverty,” congressional Democrats unleashed a detailed critique. Curiously, it focused entirely on Medicare. They said the proposal would:
  * Destroy Medicare by providing everyone under age 55 an “under-funded” voucher to purchase coverage in a private insurance marketplace where there is no guarantee that insurance companies will even participate.
  *Achieve Medicare savings by deliberately setting the voucher’s value below expected costs, sending the entitlement program into a “death spiral.”  And individuals who are healthy or earn higher incomes (above $85,000) would receive a far smaller voucher, perhaps up to 70 percent lower.
   * Allow private insurers to charge much higher premiums based on age, gender and health status, or fail to offer insurance altogether. It is important to remember, Democrats warned, that Medicare was created in 1965 because private insurers had stopped serving these populations. The Ryan proposal ignores the past, the Dems said, and it offers no guarantee of future health care benefits, forcing many retirees to choose less comprehensive coverage or pay higher premiums.
The Republican Party apparatus was quick to praise Ryan and point out that even the mainstream media sees the House Budget Committee chair presenting a provocative plan, while President Obama and congressional Democrats sit on the sidelines.
The GOP offered a series of quotes from key newspaper editorials that, although cherry picking to some degree, spell trouble for the White House.
The New York Times: “With Republicans describing their move as a bold leadership stroke, their boast has the potential to feed a budding narrative — that Mr. Obama has declined to lead in proposing the steps needed to rein in a federal debt that is growing unsustainably as the population ages and health care costs keep rising.”
The GOP pointed out that the Old Gray Lady pointedly smacked Obama for preferring a “more balanced way” toward dealing with the budget mess but gave no hint that specifics are forthcoming. 
The Washington Post: “The Wisconsin Republican has produced a plan to deal with the debt, which is more than his Democratic colleagues or President Obama can say. The first thing to praise about House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, unveiled Tuesday, is that it exists.”
The Post also took issue with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney’s comment that the president prefers a different approach. “What would that path be, Mr. President?” their editorial questioned.
The Wall Street Journal: “We’ll now separate the real reformers from the fiscal chicken-hawks.”
Not surprisingly, the WSJ was effusive in its praise for Ryan, the Republican wunderkind: “Mr. Ryan’s budget rollout is an important political and policy moment because it is the most serious attempt to reform government in at least a generation.”