Rep. Darrell Issa told TPMDC today he would be happy to co-sponsor Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget “roadmap” which privatizes Social Security and creates a voucher system for Medicare, saying it it a “much better” approach than President George W. Bush took in 2005.
We interviewed Issa (R-CA) at the Conservative Political Action Conference today, asking about the budget plan which former Majority Leader Dick Armey and others say is a smart plan to end the deficit.
“Paul Ryan did a very good job of teeing up the only possibilities. It’s not like we want to do any of those, but the fact is there has to be enough income for the outflow and that’s going to include potential changes in age, in means testing and in fact in how we collect revenue all of that has to be part of it,” Issa said.
“It’s a much better approach than what President Bush did a number of years ago which was to talk about a change, as though a change was the answer rather than an actuarial reality that not enough money goes in for the amount going out,” Issa said.
Watch the interview:
He also said that it’s Minority Leader John Boehner’s job to get consensus on how the GOP should present its ideas, but said it’s also important to consider ideas such as Ryan’s coming from individual members.
We also asked about the Draft Cheney movement and Issa offered a one-liner.
“Well he’s young, he’s rested, and if he puts his guns away and goes to work, I’ll vote for him,” Issa quipped.
