Last month, House Republicans voted almost unanimously to adopt a 2012 budget that would represent the most radical down-to-up income redistribution in U.S. history. The budget would cut some $4.3 trillion in benefits, generally over a seven-year period, and mostly in the areas of Medicare, Medicaid and health care reform, also known as the Affordable Care Act.

Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who wrote the budget proposal, claims its intent is to reduce the deficit. However, his proposal, in addition to imposing $4.3 trillion in cuts, also calls for $4.2 trillion in corporate tax cuts, exemptions and new tax loopholes – meaning the proposal’s effect on the deficit would be negligible while the rich would get richer and key health care programs would be gutted.

The Ryan Republican budget would hit the nation’s neediest citizens particularly hard. Medicare would no longer exist as we know it, and seniors would be asked to pay for up to 85 percent of their health care costs – a grim diagnosis that would force many into poverty.

Medicaid is a program that primarily serves children of lower-income families, pregnant women and people with disabilities. The GOP budget would turn Medicaid into a block-grant program and would cap its growth rate to the level of inflation. But because health care costs will rise at a faster rate than inflation, states would be forced to reduce the number of people eligible for Medicaid, and an estimated 11 million Americans would lose benefits.

The Affordable Care Act – a key focus of CWA during the past two to three years – would see important provisions entirely defunded. (Not surprisingly, Ryan receives more money in contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries than any other private sector.)

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Ryan Republican budget would cost this country nearly two million private-sector jobs, because of the steep cuts and loss that flow through private companies.

And what would the loss of federal income combined with the loss of jobs mean for already cash-strapped states? It would mean that states would have to raise taxes or cut services while at the same time dealing with a loss of tax revenue from those who are unemployed. That, in turn, could cause states to do more of what they already are doing this year: make public employees the scapegoats for their problems and work even harder to deny them collective bargaining rights and a voice in the workplace.

At press time, some Republicans were backing away from the Ryan plan – but another dangerous proposal is lurking in the U.S. Senate. To learn more, watch this video.