Reporting from Washington— Before a noticeably cool but polite audience of conservative activists, Mitt Romneyredoubled his efforts Friday to align his agenda with that of the tea party — laying out a plan to slash $500 billion from the federal budget, in part through major changes to the nation's entitlement programs.
Romney's proposals to reduce federal spending to 20% of the nation's gross domestic product by 2016 were far-reaching but often lacked specifics.
The former Massachusetts governor said he would lower the cost of Social Security by raising the eligibility age for benefits, but he did not specify how quickly those changes would be phased in. He estimated that he could achieve tens of billions of dollars in savings by capping the cost of Medicaid, the federal program that provides medical care to the poor, and allowing the states to take it over — a move his campaign said would "empower them to innovate."
In one of the most controversial elements of his plan, Romney proposed a major restructuring of Medicare, which currently provides health insurance to about 47 million elderly and disabled people. Under the changes, Medicare would become just one of many plans that seniors could purchase with a new "premium support" system that would give them a set amount of money each year to purchase a plan. » | Maeve Reston and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times | Saturday, November 05, 2011
