Ryan’s budget for 2013 also repeals the Affordable Care Act (so I know it’s never going to pass the Senate and therefore is an election year pitch to the base). Doing that would repeal:
-The establishment of health insurance exchanges and subsides for eligible individuals and families who purchase coverage through them;
-The expansion of Medicaid coverage to include most nonelderly people with income below 138 percent of poverty;
-The Community Living Assistance Service and Supports (CLASS) act (which Congress has blocked anyway – this is assistance to adults needing support with daily activities like getting out of bed and feeding themselves);
-The fix to the “doughnut hole” in Medicare Part D;
-The tax credits for small employers that offer health insurance.
In order to repeal the individual mandate.
On aggregate, Ryan’s budget results in reducing poor people’s access to health care and the number of people with health insurance. Meanwhile, he protects (and arguably increases) defense spending at a rate of around $700 billion, and extends tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the highest-income earners.
So I think of what Ryan’s 2013 budget would do and I see that it hurts poor people and helps rich people and boosts military spending. I think of that as anti-poor and pro-rich. He may do a ton of volunteering, but numerically, that’s not going to make up the deficit in Medicaid.
I’m using the independent
Bipartisan Policy Center for my source here.
I agree that abortion is important. I started a thread on the issue and changing culture (in response to the Ninth Federal Circuit blocking Arizona’s fetal pain law):
forum.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=702097