Connie Mack's "Penny Plan" Gets More Exposure Now With Other Debt Plans Tabled

See the attached video from The Sean Hannity Show dated July 29, 2011 to discover more about Connie Mack's Penny Plan - a debt cutting plan backed by Freedom Works, a Tea Party associated organization. It's supported by Senator Rand Paul, more recently Congressman Marco Rubio, and many other conservative politicians and organizations.

I'm challenging all FR readers to become more informed on this bill, The Connie Mack Penny Plan, also known as The 1% Solution and known in The House as H.R. 1848.

Casinva,

I posted this on the blog you referenced in your introduction, so I thought I would throw it out for consideration here as well:

The proposal has a lot of surface appeal, probably to people of many political spectrums, but it just wouldn’t work in the real budget world.

Even under the most conservative estimates, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are going to grow by 3.5 Trillion dollars between now and 2016 simply due to the vast numbers of baby-boomers who are retiring and becoming eligible for benefits during that period.

The only way this plan could work would be to tell current recipients they are going to take a 1% cut in their SS payments every year for the next six years—even worse, newly eligible persons would be told, “Sorry, we have to cut current Social Security spending levels by an actual 1% each year for the next six years. You get nothing.”

Now factor in the military. Last night, GOP members of the Armed Forces Committee tore into the proposed “massive cuts” to the military budget in the Reid bill. Of course, they are not really cuts at all, they are merely reductions in the rate of increase. The military budget would still rise by multiple billions every year. You can forget any 1% cut there.

So we’re already talking about far more than half the federal budget which will never take 1% cuts—indeed, they will both grow by more than 1% every year. The “Penny Plan” is not simple, it’s merely simplistic.

Hi Indomitus,

I appreciate your thoughts on this and for taking the time to try to draw your picture out clearly. I read your post sincerely and with an open heart and mind for what difficulties you are trying to put forth. I hope others do as well and that they begin thinking and action, for that must be how people work together for solutions to problems in the best way they can. It was a good post. Thanks for sharing.

I can see problems Social Security and Medicare are going to have trying to make it in today’s economy compounded with not enough money to go around and so many more baby boomers rising up to the age of Medicare. I can also see Medicaid having problems with our lack of money to sustain Medicaid with all the additional Medicaid recipients that will be receiving benefits from Obamacare.

It is a shame we have let Medicare’s and Social Security’s need for reform go so long. Perhaps if we had done something 20 years ago or so, it would not be so jeopardized today.

It’s also a shame (and a sham) our already-struggling budget had Obamacare health programs thrown in to take our economy down that much further.

It is already being made very clear by those who know these programs that our country just won’t have the money for these government benefits much longer as it is, even without budget cuts. Financial problems and additional beneficiaries will make it that much more difficult for people to get benefits, and yes, I do see there are Americans, not just slugs, but real people getting real needs met there too. I don’t think anyone would want a senior adult who has worked their entire life or a military veteran who retired after years of service to not have their expected retirement income or retirement benefits. The bigger problem, I think is when the money dries out and they may not have anything at all that they were promised, worked for their entire life, and planned on for retirement. Unless we make some other changes along the way to transition into a better way of doing things, ALL our country’s programs, including those that involved retirement benefits and pensions worked for will be in jeopardy.

Perhaps I am more optimistic than you, but I believe we are not too late to get our country’s finances in order so the worst doesn’t have to happen. We have heard of tremendous amounts of fraud in agencies, some maybe intended, some maybe just too much bureaucracy. We have also heard of agencies and departments that duplicate programs causing additional wasted funds. I would suspect there are also some smart thinking people in government management who could also figure out better ways of dong things. Our businesses have had to be smarter to survive, those who have survived have become smarter. That HOW they survived. Our country’s families have all had to become smarter to get through what we all have to deal with these days.

Between rooting out fraud, duplication, mismanagement, having better management, smart thinking, smarter actions, and having the chance to do that in smaller increments like The Penny Plan lets everyone do, it will hopefully never come to the point where a military soldier has to be told he won’t have benefits or his pension.

If we just count on rising debt to cover it, we’ll be looking at some bigger problems than we would have had we not taken action beforehand.

So yes, I agree we are in tough times with not having enough money to take care of the aging population, and yes, I see how retirement pensions are just as worthy of being concerned about as well as things such as retirement health plans, etc.

Should that stop us from getting our budgets down? Being reminded of those problems, I think it is ever more increasing necessary to get our budget monster down!

I do, however, believe some wise and insightful people may have some ideas on how to handle the growing population who have worked their entire life for a retirement pension and such, only to see it wiped out because of all the government programs taking money our country doesn’t have. I do believe a long transitioning time may be needed to get our people set up differently in the future. I don’t know how that will come about, but the first step would seem to at least get set in the right direction now while then also figuring out how to handle those other things.

I disagree with you in that I believe The Penny Plan CAN make a real difference! With six years of cutting just some off each year, it gives everyone time to adjust their budgets to smarter budgets, rooting out fraud, waste, and just stupidity in daily operations, and it gives time to start adjusting the other parts of our country as well.

Remember too, that the 1% cuts are for 6 years after which there is another smaller cap that comes into play for the next 2 years which would bring us to a balanced budget to go on with from there. A starting point. A fresh start. Eight years from now, and we are in a totally different place in time, and we’ll need to go on from there then. Especially with some of the age changes the government looks to be putting into place, many of our baby boomers won’t even be receiving any of the benefits you speak of yet. We’ll hopefully have gotten our act together for them by then and will be on our way to a better way of doing things for those folk and for those who are younger.

When... let me say AS we work on getting a budget overall NOW, the other parts of the adjusting and fixing and transitioning need to start get going as well, and sir, maybe that is where your thoughts maybe should go right now.

You seem to have a good handle on the problems, and your heart seems to be there. Let’s get this budget addict down (as the ever-more-popular commercial portrays it), and then let’s see your thoughts on how to handle the problems that arise with all the changes and adjustments that will go along with that!

Again, thanks for sharing your concerns and for doing so in such a wonderful say. I’m sure you will have a lot you can offer to help get us through the trials of getting back on track in a responsible yet caring way!

While I’m here, anyone who reads this thread will want to know that even if the Congress comes to some sort of debt deal here to save the day(sar), The Penny Plan is still standing in line ready to come into play.

The Penny Plan easily works with many other plans and/or legislation.

It could have been a primary first step in handling our high debt.

It was also available to come right in or right after the Cut, Cap, and Balance Bill to provide the tool we needed to begin handling our budget(s) in a more responsible way.

It will still be a bill ready to come up at any time even if we see some sort of temporary fix go through today, if it could be called a “temporary fix” even.

The Connie Mack Penny Plan is HR 1848 and S. 1316, both officially titled the One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011 and modeled after the One Cent Solution.

It is backed by FreedomWorks and the National Taxpayers Union, has momentum in the House, and is picking up steam in the Senate.

If we see something else go through these next few days, do NOT think this bill has gone away. It is there, and it is still available to us regardless.

While our Congressmen and Congresswomen may go on their summer vacation and then come back in an election mode, we should be mindful that there are other options that can still come into play. If you like The Connie Mack Penny Plan and think it may have an important role and a unique way of dealing with our way-too-large government budget, make sure you remember it is there in the curtains... just waiting for its call.

Just wanted you to know.

(And no, I don’t write commercials or political speeches for anyone... LOL. I just write (and write and write and write.)

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