Budget resolutions often appear on their face to be nothing more than a list of program names with numbers next to them. But behind each of those numbers is a statement of our priorities: What do we believe is important? What do we value as a society? How do we want to invest?

For the past two years, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has offered budget resolutions that show how little he values protecting the vital safety net that has allowed American seniors to live a healthy and secure retirement. Under the guise of reducing the deficit and saving entitlements, Rep. Ryan’s budget would make seniors pay more for their health care and more for prescription drugs while threatening other important supports such as Medicaid and senior nutrition programs. Cost-savings measures that would preserve Medicare’s promise of guaranteed benefits—such as the lowering of Medicare drug prices—are not found in Ryan’s budgets. Line after line and program after program, the theme of the past two Ryan budgets is clear: Make seniors pay more.

Even though American voters had the chance to examine the priorities laid out in Rep. Ryan’s past two budgets during the 2012 election and soundly rejected them in November, Rep. Ryan has appeared to learn very little from defeat. Instead, he is doubling down on his conservative agenda and trotting out the same stale policies that would shift massive costs to seniors. Many on the right praise Rep. Ryan for being brave enough to stick to his guns, but there is nothing brave about making our most vulnerable seniors sacrifice and pay while millionaires and billionaires reap the benefits of even more free tax handouts.

Increases in health care premiums

Similar to the last two installments of the Ryan budget, the third installment would increase the cost of health care premiums for seniors and dismantle traditional Medicare. The Ryan budget once again does this by replacing traditional Medicare with a voucher system—the so-called premium-support plan.

Under the Ryan budget, instead of receiving the guaranteed benefits promised by traditional Medicare, seniors would receive a voucher to purchase either traditional Medicare or private insurance. Seniors would also be required to pay any costs not covered by the voucher. Rep. Ryan’s budget would limit Medicare spending to the rate of growth in the economy plus 0.5 percent, which may be enforced by capping the amount of the vouchers. By limiting Medicare growth to a rate below the estimated growth in health care costs after 2022, the value of the vouchers would not keep up with rising costs, forcing seniors to have to pay more and more out of pocket to cover health care costs. As illustrated in the Center for American Progress’s analysis of last year’s nearly identical Ryan plan, the premium-support plan would force seniors to pay $1,200 more each year by 2030—and as much as $5,900 more each year by 2050. The first seniors impacted by these changes could pay up to $59,500 more during retirement, while seniors who reach eligibility in 2050 could pay up to $331,200 more.

Increases in prescription drug costs

Rep. Ryan doesn’t stop at making seniors pay more in health care premiums. As he did in the past, he takes it a step further and calls for repealing the Affordable Care Act. By calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Ryan is showing that he has no interest in stopping the fights of the past and bringing people together—even after the Supreme Court affirmed the act’s constitutionality. But this should come as no surprise from a man who doesn’t appear to have learned anything from the past election.

By calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Ryan is calling to raise the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. Under the Affordable Care Act, in 2012 Medicare beneficiaries who hit the Part D coverage gap—also known as the donut hole*—received a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs and 14 percent on covered generic drugs. Since January 2011 about 6.1 million seniors and people with disabilities have saved more than $5.7 billion on prescription drugs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that Medicare beneficiaries will save an average of $5,000 each through 2022. Medicare beneficiaries reaching the “donut hole” would save about $13,000 on average between 2014 and 2022. These savings would be lost entirely under the Ryan budget.

A threat to long-term care