WASHINGTON — A new budget from a large and influential group of House Republicans calls for raising the Social Security retirement age for future retirees and overhauling Medicare.
The proposals, which are unlikely to become law this year, reflect how Republicans will try to govern if they win the 2024 election. And they are entering a battle that President Joe Biden wants to fight with former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party as he runs for re-election.
The budget was announced by the Republican Investigative Committee on Wednesday, a group of more than 170 House GOP lawmakers, including many allies of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. In addition to fiscal policy, the budget approves a number of “Designed to Advance the Cause of Life” bills that would aggressively restrict and potentially endanger abortion. danger of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, by creating legal protections for people “at the moment of fertilization”. It has recently caused confusion Within the GOP after the reaction to the Alabama Supreme Court decision threatening IVF.
RSC chaired by Rep. Kevin Hearn, R-Okla. Johnson chaired the RSC from 2019-2021; his office did not immediately respond to a question about the new budget.
For Social Security, the budget approves “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” This requires reducing benefits for the highest-earning beneficiaries. And it stresses that the ideas are not meant to come into effect immediately: “The RSC Budget does not cut or delay pension benefits for any seniors at or near retirement.”
The new budget also calls for converting Medicare to a “premium support model,” repeating a proposal championed by former Republican Speaker Paul Ryan. Under the new RSC plan, traditional Medicare would compete with private plans, and beneficiaries would be given subsidies to shop for policies of their choice. The budget states that the size of subsidies can be tied to the “average premium” or “second lowest price” in a given market.
The plan became a flashpoint in the 2012 election, when Ryan was GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s running mate and claimed President Barack Obama would “end Medicare as we know it.” Ryan championed it as a way to put Medicare on better financial footing, and most of his party sided with him.
Medicare is projected to be insolvent in 2028, and Social Security is projected to be insolvent in 2033. After that, benefits will be forcibly cut unless more income is added.
Biden has slammed Republican proposals for pension programs, vowing not to cut benefits and instead proposing to pay for future shortfalls by raising taxes on top earners in the latest White House budget.
The RSC budget also presents a conundrum for Trump changing rhetoric About Social Security and Medicare without offering a clear vision for the future of applications.
Notably, the RSC budget presents three possible options to address the projected bankruptcy of pension programs: raise taxes, transfer money from the general fund, or cut spending to cover the shortfall.
He rejects the first two options.
“Raising taxes on people would further penalize them and burden the broader economy — something that has proven disastrous and regressive in a spending-and-printing regime,” the budget said, adding that the committee “also opposes the creation of a multi-trillion dollar general fund.” a transfer that worsened our financial situation.”
This ensures cost reduction.
The RSC budget launches sharp criticism of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, and calls for rolling back subsidies and regulations aimed at expanding insurance coverage.