April 14, 2014

Ryan Budget must be stopped!

The following statement was issued today by Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:

“The U.S. House passed Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s fiscal 2015 budget today. It would slash Medicare and Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars.

“The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that under the 2011 Ryan plan, an earlier budget similar to the latest version, seniors’ out-of-pocket health care expenses would skyrocket, leaving a typical retiree with far less of his or her monthly Social Security check to meet other living expenses. For a senior living on the average monthly benefit, the amount left for nonmedical needs would be slashed from about $900 a month to less than $600.

“Not satisfied with just destroying Medicare, Chairman Ryan is also attacking Social Security, saying that the Social Security Trust Fund is not a real savings account.

“The budget passed by the House today is widely viewed as a measure of the priorities and values of the majority that voted for it. It tells seniors that they don’t matter nearly as much as the wealthy people and corporations who would simultaneously receive sweetheart tax breaks.

“Seniors hope that today’s vote is enough to show the public what would happen if the Ryan budget were to be passed by the U.S. Senate: seniors would pay dearly.”