DALLAS, TX: Romney’s bold pick of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan as vice president makes it clear the 2012 election is about the country's financial future, and with Ryan on the ticket, President Obama will be dragged kicking and screaming into the Medicare reform debate.
In a statement, Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) resident scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews said a clear choice is before voters.
“Are we going to follow Romney-Ryan and rein in government spending and entitlement programs, or are we going to follow Obama-Biden by adding even more trillions of dollars in federal debt that our grandchildren and great grandchildren will have to pay for?” said Matthews.
“Do we reform the tax system to encourage economic growth and job creation, or do we increase taxes and regulations and health care costs on businesses, discouraging them from investing and growing? Will we embrace sustainable, affordable government, or will we embrace unsustainable stimulus spending and government handouts?"
Addressing Ryan’s solutions for the train wreck fast-approaching Medicare, Matthews said, “The Wyden-Ryan Medicare reform proposal—co-sponsored with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon—is the only serious plan on the table for dealing with Medicare's future sustainability."
“Wyden-Ryan builds on an existing Medicare program that 26 percent of seniors have voluntarily chosen for their Medicare coverage: Medicare Advantage,” said Matthews.
“President Obama's only effort to tackle Medicare's financial sustainability has been to tell the Medicare Trustees, under ObamaCare, to assume the government will spend some $50 trillion less than it was projected to spend,” he said. “Medicare's chief actuary subsequently issued an unprecedented report asserting, in polite terms, that no one should believe a word of those claims.”
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Merrill Matthews is available for interview by contacting Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@ipi.org.