Speaker Ryan? | National Catholic Reporter

Speaker Ryan? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: On Ryan's demands, if he wants to see his kids more, he needs to move them to DC.  St. Ann's Parish School is lovely, as are the Catholic schools in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax. Indeed, St. Mary's would coddle enough of his conservatism to give Dorothy Day pause.



I doubt he is personally less of a Randian, even if he did throw her under the bus to keep the Catholics happy.  On subsidiarity - it is about federalism - with the states making more decisions (and bearing more financial burden) that he was referring to - although he misses the part in subsidiarity which deals with higher levels of government taking over if the lower level can't.  Of course, the lowest level is to have a tax on employers, say a subtraction VAT, letting employers either pay the tax with the funds going to the local government, or providing the services.



What Ryan usually misses, of course, is the need to force all levels to pay enough (and relatives are not a level of government). Whether a certain level is adequate or not is technical question - one that must use both economic data and case management input.  For example, food  stamps are currently inadequate, as is the lack of any cash income for single poor people who don't even get Metro fare without getting Disability.



Of course, the main entitlement cuts are Chained CPI (which dials back both COLAs and Indexing) and raising Part B and D premiums on Medicare.  Of course, to really do that without making many retirees worse off (although it is usually the richer ones who pay more), you must increase the basic Social Security benefit to offset the premium increases - and maybe beyond the premium increase.  That means you need more money - say by getting rid of the income caps (although that also gives wealthier retirees a bigger benefit unless you change the bend points) - or you could LOWER the tax on employees and remove the cap on employer levies - funding it with a Value Added Tax and giving each employee the same amount, regardless of their wage (and get rid of benefit bend points).



That is the school solution to entitlement reform (which has little to do with welfare if you want real money).  Would Ryan be brave enough to go as far as I suggest?  I very much doubt it, which means he is better off as Speaker than as Ways and Means Chair - as anything he would suggest would either be vetoed or negotiated with Obama (which will kill it in the eyes of the Freedom Caucus).