Paul Ryan spent his speech tonight boosting GOP proposals to reform the tax code, healthcare system and veterans care. Ryan claimed that the GOP’s plans would be a significant improvement over the status quo. But the experts strongly disagree. Take a look below to separate Ryan’s flowery rhetoric from reality:
CLAIM #1: Paul Ryan: Republicans offer a superior tax code. “We offer a better way for America, with ideas that actually work. A reformed tax code that rewards free enterprise, instead of just enterprising lobbyists.”
THE FACTS: Conservative former CBO director: Donald Trump’s tax plan “loses too much revenue to even be considered.” “Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank, and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said that from a legislative perspective, ‘The plan loses too much revenue to even be considered and lacks the cohesion of a genuine tax reform.’” [Fiscal Times, 5/17/16]
CLAIM #2: Paul Ryan: Republicans offer a superior health care system. “We offer a better way for America, with ideas that actually work. […] A reformed health care system that operates by free choice, instead of by force, and doesn’t leave you answering to cold, clueless bureaucrats.”
THE FACTS: Brookings senior fellow Henry Aaron: Donald Trump’s health care plan is “either the fraudulent offer of a huckster who takes voters for fools, or clear evidence of stunning ignorance about how insurance works.” “In simple terms, Trump’s promise to bar insurers from using preexisting conditions to screen customers but simultaneously to scrap the companion provisions that make the bar feasible is either the fraudulent offer of a huckster who takes voters for fools, or clear evidence of stunning ignorance about how insurance works. Take your pick.” [U.S. News opinion, 3/7/16]
CLAIM #3: Paul Ryan: Republicans offer better care for veterans. “We offer a better way for America, with ideas that actually work. […] A renewed commitment to building a 21st-Century military – and to giving our veterans the care they were promised, the care that they have earned.”
THE FACTS: Disabled American Veterans executive director: Donald Trump’s encouraging veterans to seek health care in the private sector “would lead to worse health outcomes for many veterans.” “Critics are calling Trump’s proposal a voucher program, where vets would get reimbursed by the VA for all their care. They have two main objections. Garry J. Augustine [executive director] at Disabled American Veterans (DAV) defended the VA as better-quality care for vets. After Trump’s speech, Augustine said in a statement: ‘Encouraging all veterans to seek care in the private sector, which lacks the expertise to treat military and combat injuries and illnesses, and which does not typically provide integrated or coordinated care, would lead to worse health outcomes for many veterans.’” [NPR, 7/13/16]