The chairman of the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal outlining a proposed deal with President Obama: "Here are just a few ideas to get the conversation started. We could ask the better off to pay higher premiums for Medicare."
Congress just got done raising taxes on higher-income individuals, and now they are going to "ask the better off to pay higher premiums for Medicare"? The "better off" already paid more into Medicare when they were working, because the Medicare payroll tax is a tax on income. One can argue that even that doesn't cover the value of the benefits received, but even so, it would be refreshing to find some Republicans out there who start from the principle that the government should treat everyone the same, rather than dividing people up into categories by income or assets and then trying to solve the federal government's budget problems on the backs of "the better off."
This is one offer I wouldn't be surprised to see President Obama accept, because it fits his ideology.
