Republicans proposed cutting the U.S. deficit with a tax overhaul that would raise about $300 billion and by raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67, said aides familiar with a congressional supercommittee’s talks.
Republicans, who until now opposed new tax revenue in any deficit plan, suggested reducing individual tax deductions, exclusions and other breaks and changing the way income tax brackets are indexed to inflation, a Democratic aide said. In exchange, Republicans called for reducing the top marginal tax rate to as low as 28 percent, the aide said. Those changes would net $300 billion in higher revenue, the aide said.
The plan would reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries, said the aide, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
The proposal also would save money by gradually raising the eligibility age for the Medicare health-care system to 67 from 65, according to another congressional aide. The Republicans’ overall proposal would cut about $1.2 trillion from the deficit over 10 years, with about $700 billion of that coming from spending cuts, that aide said.
