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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

House GOP Budget: Tax Cuts for Rich, Big Changes for Medicare?

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Thursday, April 12, 2012   

PHOENIX - The federal budget plan passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gives huge tax cuts to millionaires - and pays for them by privatizing Medicare and raising the eligibility age by two years, according to new analyses.

The plan also means major cuts to Medicaid and higher taxes for the middle class and working poor, the number-crunchers say.

Along with making the Bush tax cuts permanent, says Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this budget would give a big new break to anyone making $1 million a year.

"Cut the taxes of an average millionaire by $265,000. Taxpayers making between $10,000 and $20,000 would actually pay about $200 more in taxes. They'd actually have their taxes go up."

House GOP leaders say turning Medicare into a private voucher program and raising the eligibility age need to happen because the program is going bankrupt. Democrats counter that current reforms that affect how health care providers are paid already are making Medicare more stable.

According to the consumer group Families USA, the GOP budget would shift $23 billion of costs onto Arizona state government, businesses and individuals over 10 years. The group's executive director, Ron Pollack, says Arizona's AHCCCS (Access) program and those for seniors and others would face tough choices.

"Do they cut funding for nursing home care? Do they cut dollars spent for home- and community-based care services? Do services get cut for children?"

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says the plan would be paid for by closing tax loopholes - but doesn't specify them. Marr says that would mean politically impossible moves, such as closing the mortgage-interest or charitable-donation deductions, or a gigantic expansion of the deficit.

"He digs a hole of about $4.5 trillion over 10 years. I mean, you really are talking about a real lot of money."

Republican House leaders say turning Medicare into a private voucher program and raising the eligibility age needs to happen because the program is going bankrupt. Democrats counter that current reforms that affect how health care providers are paid are already making Medicare more stable.

Marr's analysis of the Ryan budget is online at cbpp.org. The Families USA reports are at familiesusa.org.


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