The State Journal-Register - Durbin, Callis Attack Republican Budget Plans

News Article

By Bernard Schoenburg

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and congressional candidate Ann Callis of Edwardsville on Monday criticized a budget plan passed in the Republican-led House with support from the congressman Callis wants to unseat -- U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville.

Durbin, a Springfield Democrat who is being challenged for re-election to the U.S. Senate by Republican state Sen. Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove in the Nov. 4 election, and Callis held a joint news conference at the Statehouse.

"The Ryan Republican budget is the wrong direction for our country," said Callis, who is running against Davis in the 13th Congressional District, which includes part of Springfield.

On April 10, the House voted 219-205 to pass a budget plan pushed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. It got no Democratic votes.

While that budget blueprint was designed to cut more than $5 trillion to reach balance by 2024, one way that would occur would be to shift future retirees away from traditional Medicare and toward a subsidy-based health insurance option on the open market, The Associated Press reported when the vote was taken.

The subsidy -- called "premium support" by Republicans but criticized as a voucher system by Democrats -- would allow retirees to purchase health insurance on the open market, the AP said. Republicans argued such a plan would offer seniors more choices and curb costs, but critics said the payments wouldn't keep up with inflation and future seniors would have higher out-of-pocket costs.
Durbin said that Oberweis also supports the GOP plan.

"They want to create a voucher system," Durbin said of Davis and Oberweis. "And so they want to turn seniors loose on the mercies of health insurance companies."

Oberweis spokesman Dan Curry said that Oberweis "has a lot of admiration for Paul Ryan" and his attempt to solve the budget problem. But Curry said Oberweis has "not studied every detail" of the Ryan plan, and Curry said he is not aware of Oberweis having taken a position on the Medicare part of the plan.

The Ryan budget did not involve Social Security. Durbin said that Oberweis has proposed raising the retirement age to 72, which Durbin called "another example where Mr. Oberweis is out of touch with ordinary working Americans."

During a 2008 run for the U.S. House, Oberweis proposed that individuals be allowed to invest a quarter of their Social Security benefits in the stock market, and to pay for the voluntary program, participants would forgo benefits until age 72, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.

Curry said Oberweis has not renewed that idea during this campaign, and thinks that "entitlement reform is too important an undertaking to do it with one party."

"Job creator Jim Oberweis has said he would be open to a range of bipartisan solutions to Dick Durbin's reckless spending," Curry said.

The current retirement age for full Social Security benefits ranges from 65 for people born in 1937 or earlier to 67 for people born in 1960 or later.

People pay Social Security taxes on the first $117,000 of their income. Both Durbin and Callis said they would be open to raising that taxable-income amount for Social Security as part of a bipartisan, negotiated long-term financial fix for the program.

A Democratic alternative to the Ryan budget, unveiled in April by U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, would rely on $1.5 trillion in higher taxes over 10 years and counts on hundreds of billions in tax revenues from an influx of immigrant workers -- benefits from proposed immigration reform, and AP said.

Callis did not embrace the Van Hollen plan.

"I'd have to look at everything," she said, "and let's see what's practical."

Davis campaign manager Tim Butler said later that Davis "supported a framework that balances our budget in 10 years, does not raise taxes, and reduces the deficit by $4.6 trillion." He also said Davis "understands our seniors rely upon Social Security and Medicare and he is working hard to preserve and protect these vital programs without any changes for those at or near retirement."

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