Your entire post is exactly right. But this is the overarching issue here, and in a way really is the subject of the thread. Ryann cannot introduce a plan that would immediately privatize Medicare.
Greater than 50% of our population has come to expect and rely upon govt entitlements. This includes GOP voters. And they all vote. Ryan may envision an incremental approach toward a mkt based system...that's only conjecture on my part. But do we have enough time? As of right now, unless something unforeseen economic upturn, it's dubious.
“But do we have enough time? As of right now, unless something unforeseen economic upturn, it’s dubious.”
“We won’t cut medicare or social security” is the universal lie of all parties and political races at the national level. It’s easy to say, it’s what people want to hear, and if somebody challenges it - you get to say “See, HE wants to push you off the cliff and cut your benefits”.
I have no idea whether there is a strategy that can be articulated to do it incrementally - and to your point, if you do it slowly enough so that it doesn’t impact people who want their stuff significantly, we may not have enough time to meaningfully evolve it to something even partially resembling a market-based system.
To me it’s a Gordian knot - only when the entire system breaks and folks are faced with a choice between dramatic cuts and nothing at all will the political system be able to cut through it rather than try to untangle the mess.
Of course, we may well have far worse problems at that point.
So everyone will lie and pretend that medicare/social security is fine.
Conservatives ought not delude ourselves that this makes us de facto supporters of the worst kind of socialism - but we’re already here, whether we admit it or not.
That’s why the criticism of Romney as liberal is comical. We’re ALL socialists, if we’re honest about where we are. We call ourselves conservatives and democrats - yet everyone wants the socialism to continue.