NOTICIAS

Last week, Senator Rob Portman (OH) launched a website looking for ideas on how to reduce the deficit. As a member of the Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “Super Committee”) Senator Portman’s interest in hearing from the public is important. You can submit your ideas on his website here: http://portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/reduce-the-deficit

While Senator Rubio is not on the committee, here are two ideas he submitted:

Repeal ObamaCare

Although health care spending is the biggest long-term driver of our debt, the 2,700 page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) has made a bad situation worse. According to the House Budget Committee, PPACA will add over $700 billion to our deficit in the first ten years of implementation, carrying a total price tag of $2.6 trillion. The law also includes at $100 billion in new Medicaid obligations for the states as well as at least $1 trillion in new job-killing tax hikes. To help get our deficit under control, ObamaCare should be repealed in full and replaced with patient-centered health care reforms that lower health care costs and empower individuals, not government bureaucrats. 

Save Entitlement Programs for Future Generations

It is impossible to deal with our long-term debt obligations unless we address the skyrocketing costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Medicare alone has an unfunded liability of over $30 trillion, and over 10,000 Americans become eligible for the program’s benefits every day. Entitlement programs are a central part of the American social safety net, but they are simply not sustainable for future generations as currently structured. In order to save these programs without affecting benefits for those in or near retirement Congress should consider gradually raising the retirement age, adopting a more-realistic measure of inflation, and means-testing benefits for wealthier beneficiaries.