Paul Wohlfarth: Republicans' financial plans would cut benefits, increase costs
Republicans are now in charge of the House of Representatives. Their first order of business is to rescind extra funding of the IRS which the Congressional Budget Office says will cost more than $114 billion in the next decade if implemented.
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, will tell you increased IRS funding is an attack on small business, but it's proven the IRS does less than 1% of its audits on the wealthy for lack of funding. Its focus has been on the low-hanging taxpayer who is paying at higher rates because of tax avoidance. Too many uber-rich are considering themselves above the law and feel they do not need to abide by our laws. With increased acts of unpunished lawlessness by our leaders, Americans are growing restless by all the criminality. It seems money trumps law and order!
Newly elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy made unholy deals with 20 extremist Republicans to hold hostage payment of the debt unless cuts are made in Social Security, Medicare and defense spending. We know the Department of Defense has yet to pass an audit after repeated failed attempts costing taxpayers millions. So it should be apparent waste and fraud are ripe at the DoD.
Social Security and Medicare are privately funded where benefits are paid to those who contributed over a lifetime of work. A major problem with Medicare is former President George W. Bush's 2003 inclusion of Medicare Advantage private insurance costing 18% to administer where Traditional Medicare is only 2%. These private insurers are costing our Medicare system $500 billion a year in administration costs, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Also, fraud is rampant with Medicare Advantage insurers, as reported in the New York Times, allowing insurers to up-code patients as sicker than they are to reap higher premiums, pilfering the system from lack of oversight. The politicians look the other way as long as they get campaign contributions from these bad actors.
Instead of managing the fraud, Republicans look to raise the beneficiary age to 70 years and means test benefits for wealthier members who paid into the system at usually higher rates than others. The system will flirt with bankruptcy in 2026. Republican cuts to punish the hard work of a lifetime of recipients may extend it but will only hurt current and future beneficiaries.
Republicans should look to represent their constituents needs instead of doing the bidding of dark money donors who don't want to pay their taxes.
Paul Wohlfarth lives in Riga Township and is retired from Chrysler Motors. He can be reached at wolfmanwon@aol.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Paul Wohlfarth: GOP financial plans would cut benefits, increase costs
