Congressional Republicans have plans to transform health care and cut the highest tax rates, measures once out of reach in a Democrat-controlled Senate.
Source: www.nytimes.com
House Republicans will try again to transform Medicare and Medicaid, repeal the Affordable Care Act (‘Obamacare’), shrink domestic spending and substantially cut the highest tax rates through the budget process. Then they will leave it to the new Senate Republican majority to decide how far to press the party’s small-government vision.
Republicans intend to present a plan to overhaul Medicare; calling for voucherlike ‘premium supports’ to steer seniors into buying commercial health insurance, and to transform Medicaid, which would be cut and turned into block grants to state governments; and intend to set up a new commission to study options on Social Security, while relying on what one House Republican aide calls ‘the solid foundation’ of the Paul Ryan budget plan.
Incoming Senate Budget Committee chairman, Senator Jeff Sessionsof Alabama has been a staunch defender of the (Paul) Ryan plan. Jeff is scheduled to give a speech Wednesday on Capitol Hill to lay out his principles for the committee: reaching annual accord on a budget; consolidating government functions; ending what aides call a tolerance of wasteful spending.
Akira Morikawa 