Senate Tea Party Caucus members have put together a plan to balance the budget in five years, which they presented Thursday. The proposal, “A Platform to Revitalize America,” would cut government spending by almost $11 trillion from President Barack Obama’s budget,
The Hill reports. A $111 billion surplus would result by fiscal year 2017 under the plan.
The plan’s authors weren’t afraid to go after sacred cows, urging a restructuring of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to cut costs. They want to shift Medicare to a premium support plan that would offer seniors the same healthcare plan that congressmen receive. That change would save an estimated $1 trillion over 10 years, the plan says, according to The Hill.
The tea partyers realize that their package won’t be passed by a Democratic-controlled Senate. “The whole point here is to show we can reasonably balance the budget within a five-year period,” Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., one of the proposal’s sponsors, told The Hill.
“This idea that we have to look 30 years out to balance the budget is not only unnecessary, but it’s improbable. We cannot continue to spend at our current rate for 10 more years, much less 20 or 30 more years. This is an urgent matter.”
Other key backers of the plan include Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah.
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