Welfare State Tipping Points

Mon 20 Jun 11 | 08:00 AM ET

The following transcript has not been checked for accuracy.

i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. carl is off this week. our guest host paul ryan. we have plenty to talk to him about, but first we want to check out the markets. futures are a little bit shaky. indicated down 60 points or so. hopefully not the -- he call it the ghost of futures past. i look at greece and i think there goes but the grace of god, 40% work for the government. hard to pay the salaries of the government workers. sooner or later you run out of other people's money to spend. will is what we're worried about. we're worried about the welfare state tipping costs. if you look across the seas, you can see where we could head about we stay in the trajectory we're on. we're on this tipping point where more and more people are becoming more takers than makers. we're worried about getting close to that point. when you're 50% and people argue whether payroll tax is a tax, but where 49% doesn't pay, you get over 51%, i think you can learn a lot of elections. 51% can elect before befo-- you close up shop. it's having a limited government with economic 23r50e freechl. the premises is to fix our safety net so our welfare system is designed to get people back on their feet. that's where we're talking about job training and scholar ships to people who lose their jobs in toe industries, they go back to school and get back on their feet. the whole idea is to help people who are down on their luck in tough times, help people who truly can't help themselves. get back in a productive lives so we can have economic growth and entrepreneurialism. so we can have a prosperous country. now, my biggest fear is because of all this debt, because of all this spending, and because of this redistribution mentality we have per vading washington is that we're basically doubling down on that direction, and cradle to grave social welfare states simply don't work. not only is it morally wrong because it zaps people of their will to make the most of their lives, but they're xhieconomica bankrupt. this is where we've offered a different direction and this is why, yes, the debt limit hopefully we'll get a good down payment, but jared is a good which am peop example of mind set. the next two to four years, that's where we decide i think what is america going to be, what independent could hakind og to be. whether 2010 was like whether we move back the other way from that -- because you had a lot of know money item momentum in 2010 with what happened in the house, but a lot of seniors are saying they want to take away everything we have. but when they learn our proposal repeals the obama care rationing, it repeals the rate of medicare which obama care takes half a ril i don't know dollars from medicare to spend on other government programs, and we preserve the benefit. we make sure that people 55 and above don't see any change in their medicare benefit, but you got to reform for the next generation like we're talking about. it's a plan that -- sgh somebody wrote in and said my grandmother now gets a coupon book from the federal government and she clips coupons for the health services she needs. or does she get a voucher? i'll tell you my experience because i'm a federal employee. i get a book that says here are your insurance options. blue cross, aetna, humana, whichever. pick your plan and then my employer, the federal government, subsidize. that's what we're saying. guaranteed coverage options. every year you get additional amounts. they adjust upwards as you get sicker. more for the poor. an extra $7800 for low income people that's indexed for inflation. so we're saying you get guaranteed options just like medicare advantage works today, how you buy your supplemental or part d. and then medicare subsidizes it. and this is for the 54 and under crowd. 55 and above, no change at all. you keep the current medicare program. that's the whole point we're making which is every year you don't do something to fix this problem, you go trillions deeper in the hole. so our whole point is let's keep medicare promises. let's overt a debt crisis on we can do it now on you are on own terms because if you keep kicking the can down the road, we can't keep making those kind of promises. you can't shield current seniors. people who have already retired, the government made them a promise. let's keep that promise, finance it, which we do, get rid of the obama care damages it does to hair benefits, rationing board in charge of their program, raiding the program for pay for something else. get rid of that, guarantee their benefits. but you have to reform it for the next generation so we can do that.