next decade and that s trillions. ryan will unveil his deficit plan tomorrow. according to ryan it will cut over $4 trillion over ten years, largely through what he calls entitlement reform. medicare would remain the same for anyone age 55 or older but for those under 55 the plan eliminates medicare and replaces it with a privatized system that provides some help paying for health insurance premiums, those subsidies paying for health insurance premiums are means tested. the ryan plan also increases the age of medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 by 2032. it ends medicaid as we know it and replaces it with simple block grants to the states. it would cap federal discretionary spending to historic levels of around 20% of gdp and it does all that without raising taxes.
of tennessee and congressman weiner, democrat of new york, thank you for joining me and having this civil discussion tonight. thank you. next year s budget will be an even bigger political fight. republican congressman paul ryan wants to cut $4 trillion but to do that he will dismantle medicare and medicaid and the media still loves to call paul ryan the responsible republican. that s next. later, president obama asks the same voters who helped get him into the white house to join the cause again and start organizing for his re-election. can volunteers who were inspired by the anti-war senator now work for the commander in chief of three wars? announcer: this past year alone there s been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one. that s why the network
decade and that s trillions. ryan will unveil his deficit plan tomorrow. it will cut $4 trillion largely through what he calls entitlement reform. medicare would remain the same for anyone 55 or older. for those under 55, the plan eliminates medicare and replaces it with a privatized system that provides some help paying for health insurance premiums though those subsidies paying for health insurance premiums are means tested. the ryan plan increases the age of medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 by 2032. it ends medicaid as we know it and replaces it with simple block grants to the states. it would cap federal discretionary spending to historic levels of around 20% of gdp and it does all that without
aren t you playing into the democrats hands? we are giving them a political weapon to go against us but they will have to lie and demagogue to make that a political weapon. the president has punted. we aren t going to be following suit and yes we will be giving our political adversaries things to use in the next election and shame on them if they do that. joining me now my guest, bob, thank you very much for joining us tonight. happy to be here. you are of course always my guide to fairness in any budget plan. looking at what we know as of this time about what congressman ryan is proposing, how would you grade the fairness of this plan? lawrence, i ve been here for almost four decades now. this is by far the most radical and extreme budget plan i ve ever seen. it dramatically cuts health care funding for low and moderate income people through medicaid and medicare.
i don t see any lie anyone has to tell to get opposition to this plan out there. so what ryan will say is that his plan provides a voucher or a fixed dollar amount and you can go and use that dollar amount and buy private insurance. there are two problems with that. the first is that medicare is actually a pretty efficient system and it pays doctors and hospitals less than private insurance does. if you go to buy private insurance, you have to pay for the higher rates and profits and marketing and you re not going to get more for less. the second issue and this is the most important is the dollar amount he gives seniors to go buy coverage in the private market, he designs it in a way so that the dollar amount you get doesn t keep pace with rising health care costs. with each passing year your voucher would buy less health care and you would be more