One of the handful of cosponsors of a far-reaching roadmap that would involve privatizing both Medicare and Social Security says he has no regrets about supporting the GOP shadow budget. And yet despite the fact that Republican leadership has sought to distance the party from the plan, he says the onus should be on Democrats to hop aboard Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposal.
“Anybody that is serious about fixing the fiscal challenges has to address honestly the issue of entitlements,” Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) told me in an interview this afternoon, “and that’s what Congressman Ryan has done and I commend him for it.
“There are all sorts of positive ideas out there,” Price said. “I think that the roadmap is one of those that we ought to be looking at seriously. Congressman Ryan has introduced it through at least two Congress’ now. And it’s a very thoughtful and important document that I think positively effects the debate.”
The House GOP leadership has a remarkably different take. They have done their best to distance themselves from the plan–though they can’t seem to name areas of specific disagreement with it. I asked Price if there’s any contradiction between the Republican’s demands for fiscal restraint and their unwillingness to saddle up to Ryan’s proposal.
“I don’t think so,” Price said. “The leaders talked about having a panoply of ideas and options out there to solve the problems we face.”
The Congressional Budget Office says that, by slashing entitlements, the Ryan plan would eliminate budget deficits after a few decades. That’s politically dangerous territory, though, and, as such, it only has nine co-sponsors. Price says that’s not the goal.
“[Ryan]’s goal has not been to get cosponsors. His goal is to put something on the table that would help educate individuals, but also give folks a benchmarks to point to and say this is one way that we can get to balance, and we ought to start talking about it and acting on it now, because it just gets more and more difficult each year.”
So why aren’t Republican leaders at least nodding positively at the plan?
“That’s a decision for each and every member of Congress to make,” Price said. “I’d be enthusiastic if I thought there were any folks on the other side of the aisle who were looking at this issue in a serious manner.”
