The latest Newsweek gives U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., two full pages to offer highlights of his plan to get federal government finances out of their deep hole.
Ryan offers a good description of the debt problem we face today:
Imagine your family’s finances if you spent and borrowed like Washington: you’d owe $60 in credit-card loans for every $100 of income. Every month you’d pay back a little but borrow even more. In 10 years, you’d owe $87 for every $100 you made. At some point you’d hand off the debt to your kids. If they worked until 2035, they’d owe more than $180 for every $100 they earned. In 2050, your grandkids would owe more than $320. By 2080 they’d owe seven times their earnings. Of course, lenders would cut them off well before then, and your family would be ruined. But this is the path your government is on right now.
Among his recommendations for fixing the problem are entitlement reforms and a health-care overhaul that would allow you (not the government or your employer) to own your health plan. In addition, he pushes ?pro-growth? tax reform.
To get the economy going again, the Roadmap offers the option of a simple, low-rate, two-tier personal income tax, eliminating loopholes and the double taxation of savings and investment. Corporate income taxes will be replaced by a simple 8.5 percent business consumption tax. (For specifics on these and other reforms, go to americanroadmap.org.)
There?s no talk of a new stimulus package, which must make Roy Cordato happy.
