How about a debate over America's future prosperity?
If journalists would like to ask actual substantive questions for a change at the GOP debate in Milwaukee, they could start by asking about the biggest threat to our nation’s future security -- the burgeoning entitlement monster.
Fox Business is the ideal sponsor for such a debate. There are huge business and economic implications of the unrestrained growth of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The behemoth programs threaten our national security and our children’s economic future.
Three of the presidential candidates who will be on the stage have offered serious reform proposals – Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio, and most recently former Gov. Jeb Bush.
“If we do not have an honest conversation about what it will take to protect Medicare and Social Security, we fail seniors and we will fail the next generation of Americans,” Bush wrote when he released his plan.
Rubio, in a plan announced last year, says, “When it comes to a broad and comprehensive Medicare reform plan, let’s learn from the mistakes of ObamaCare and the successes of programs such as Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D.”
Gov. Christie warned of the “explosion of national debt and demand for higher taxes that unrestrained growth of these entitlement programs will create.”
The threat is very real: Without reform, Medicare and Social Security benefits will be slashed, taxes will soar, and younger people paying into the system now will get little or nothing back from the programs.
Raising the retirement ageEncouraging continued work by retireesGiving seniors more choice of health coverage by providing a government payment that allows them to choose the Medicare plan that works best for them: More means testing of Medicare and Social Security for wealthier seniors:Providing new ways for workers to save for their retirement:Provide a grant to the states to tackle Medicaid reform:And the long knives are sure to come out when these issues are debated during the general election campaign. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton already is accusing Republicans of plans to “cut benefits for the elderly and the poor.”
In fact, inaction is the surest path to harming the most vulnerable in our society by Disclaimer: Grace-Marie advises Jeb Bush on his health reform proposals.
