MADISON– Following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate on “Mr. Wall Street” Paul Ryan’s budget proposal that cuts more than $6 trillion in spending over the next ten years.
“Paul Ryan’s so-called budget “reforms” to Medicaid and Medicare are simply cuts. They do nothing to lower the costs of health care to needy citizens; they merely set up the government to pay for a smaller portion of the care.
Generations of hard-working Americans fought for our country, built our roads and bridges and taught our children with the promise that social safety net programs like Medicare would be there to assist them in their retirement years. Paul Ryan’s budget dismantles Medicare, turning it into an inadequate voucher system to purchase health insurance in a broken marketplace that has seen record profits while denying care and benefits.
Also on the chopping block is Medicaid, which Ryan would convert into a block grant proposal that allows governors and state health officials to cut benefits to those who need them most. Here in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker has proposed his own budget filled with draconian cuts to healthcare funding, Walker and his right-wing extremist political appointee Dennis Smith would have carte blanche to eliminate health care programs for thousands of working families, small business owners and farmers.
Paul Ryan’s budget, which he heralds as “The Path to Prosperity,” certainly promises just that for big corporations, protecting tax subsidies and giveaways for big oil and Ryan’s Wall Street backers, while providing devastating news for working families, the elderly and the poor.”
