WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined Republican members of the committee today in submitting recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction on tax, entitlement programs, and trade policy.

“Failure to reduce our deficits, and to put the nation’s largest entitlement programs on a path to sustainability, creates incredible uncertainty for the individuals and businesses and thereby inhibits growth in jobs and the economy,” the letter stated. “A failure to get the debt under control risks further downgrades of the nation’s credit rating, with consequent increases in the cost of borrowing that will only slow economic growth.”

Under the Budget Control Act, congressional committees had until today to submit recommendations to the Joint Committee. The recommendations, sent to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) who chair the Joint Committee, include recommendations on tax, entitlement programs, and trade policy that would make significant contributions to deficit reduction.

Sen. Roberts is pleased with many of the suggestions related to fundamental tax reform, including:

Repeal of Health Spending Law and Tax Increases: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) significantly increased taxes in order to pay for the law’s expansion of government. PPACA should be repealed in its entirety, including a repeal of all of the law’s tax increases.

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Repeal: The AMT should be repealed. Congress enacted the AMT in 1969 to address the issue of 155 Americans earning more than $200,000 and paying no federal income taxes. Today, the AMT has become an albatross around the neck of millions of American taxpayers.

Several issues under Medicaid and Medicare are also important to note:

Address the Eligibility Age: Medicare spending has grown from $37 billion in 1980 to $514 billion in 2010, a 13-fold increase. Currently, once seniors turn 65, they are eligible to receive Medicare benefits. Similar to the proposals put forth by the President’s budget, as well as other deficit discussion groups, the JSC should address the Medicare eligibility age.

When Medicare was created in 1965, the average life expectancy was 70 years of age, and today, the average life expectancy is 79 years of age and increasing as health care improves. With the baby boomers coming on line, there are simply not enough younger workers paying into the system to be able to sustain the program. Fifty years ago, there were five workers paying the benefits for each retiree. Today there are only three workers paying the benefits for each retiree, and in 20 years that number will decrease to two. This is an important issue to be examined in addressing the long term solvency of the Medicare program.

Establish a Uniform Deductible: Currently, beneficiaries pay a deductible for both inpatient and outpatient services. The Part A deductible is approximately $1100 with a co-payment applied after 60 days of hospital stay. Outpatient co-payments generally cost about 20 percent of Medicare allowed rates. The JSC should examine a unified deductible covering Part A and Part B services, as well as a uniform coinsurance rate for amounts above the deductible, and an annual cap to protect seniors’ financial exposure.

Strengthen Efforts Against Fraud, Waste and Abuse: Efforts to fight fraud and abuse in the Medicare program must be strengthened. Every dollar lost to fraud and abuse is one less dollar spent on care for our seniors.

A complete list of the recommendations can be found here.

The recommendations were submitted by Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), John Thune (R-S.D.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

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