A Roadmap for America's Future, by Rep. Paul Ryan

A Roadmap for America's Future

America faces a choice between two fiscal and economic futures.

In one, ever-rising levels of government spending overwhelm the
Federal budget and the U.S. economy with crushing burdens of debt and
higher taxes. It is a future in which America's best century is the
past century.

The second future is one in which the principles that created
America's freedom and prosperity are restored. It is the path set out
in my plan, A Roadmap for America's Future.

Currently, we are on a path of unsustainable Federal spending. The
main problem is the looming crisis of entitlement spending. The
well-intentioned social insurance strategies of the past century –
particularly Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – are headed
toward financial collapse.

Not only will these programs grow themselves into extinction, they
will immensely burden our economy and budget – piling massive amounts
of debt on future generations, crippling our ability to compete in the
international marketplace, and dramatically reducing Americans'
standards of living.

We can and must set a different course. But the time for talk has
passed. We need a plan.

Based on the input of many, I developed A Roadmap for America's Future to:

1. Ensure universal access to health insurance, fulfill the missions
of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and make these programs
permanently solvent.

2. Return Federal spending growth to sustainable levels and lift the
debt burden looming over future generations.

3. Promote sustained economic and job growth and put the U.S. in a
position to lead – not merely survive – in the international marketplace.

We are going to have to tackle these problems, or they're going to
tackle us. My plan addresses all these issues at once because
piecemeal, incremental "fixes" cannot match the magnitude, the
urgency, and the interrelated nature of these challenges.

It's an ambitious proposal. Not everyone will agree with every aspect
of it, and that's fine. But if nothing else, it's my sincere hope that
it will spur Congress to move beyond simply rehashing the problem – to
debating and implementing actual solutions for the American people.

It is a real plan, with real proposals, real numbers to back them, and
real legislation to implement it.