A Man Of Ideas

• Six-term Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan[R] is putting the lie to Democrat charges that the Republican party is devoid of ideas. In his 'Roadmap for America's Future,' Ryan outlines his solutions to our nation's most vexing challenges. An issue-by-issue summary of his cogent ideas include:

Health Care

• A refundable tax credit for individuals and families ($2,300 and $5,700, respectively) to purchase portable insurance policies from across state lines (which promotes competition among the country's 1,700 health insurance companies). Any remaining funds are then pocketed by the consumer.
• Enable effective comparison shopping for the consumer via transparency in health care pricing and service quality.
• Allowing small businesses to pool their resources nationally so as to better afford coverage for their employees.
• Create state-based exchanges wherein individuals and families can purchase affordable coverage without being discriminated against for pre-existing conditions.
• Offer states high risk pools so that everyone can access coverage.

None of these measures are included in Democrat reforms, which are scheduled for a vote this weekend. If you think reconsideration is in order (instead of the oft-cited reconciliation, which is a complete ruse), go to Free Our Healthcare Now and voice your opposition. But I digress...

The Roadmap continues:

Medicare/Medicaid

• Preserves the program for those currently enrolled, and for those enrolling in the next 10 years.
• Reforms the program to make it permanently solvent.
• Fully funds Medical Savings Accounts.

Social Security

• Preserves the program for those who are 55 years of age or older.
• Offers to those under the age of 55 the option of investing up to 1/3 of their social security taxes into personal retirement accounts that are fully inheritable by their beneficiaries, and are guaranteed against the loss of every dollar contributed.
• Reforms the program to make it permanently solvent.

Taxes

• Offers tax payers the option of filing their returns via the current tax code or doing so via a simplified version that is the size of a postcard.
• Adopts 2 tax rates: 10% (on income up to $100K joint; $50K single), and 25% on income above these thresholds. A generous standard deduction also applies, whereby a family of four would be exempt from the first $39K in income.
• Eliminates the AMT.
• Eliminates taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains, and death (inheritance).
• Replaces the current corporate tax (second highest in the world) with a consumption tax of 8.5%, which is half that of other industrialized nations (thereby making the U.S. all the more competitive and attractive to foreign investment).

Contrast these ideas with those peddled by the Democrats. One is based on individual freedoms and choice, while the other (bandied about by liberals and progressives) has centralized government serving as the arbiter of one's entire existence.

A cursory overview of the aforementioned Roadmap begs the question, then, "Which party is lacking in ideas?"