Here We Go Again

May 6th, 2011

One more time. The Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) plan is still just as ridiculous today as it was when it came out a month ago. It's still based on massive giveaways to the rich, it's still absent any meaningful defense reform and as Bruce Bartlett notes in the Financial Times, its implementation would still raise the total federal debt by over 5 trillion dollars in the next decade. Which means it's still provably dishonest. It also makes Ryan's hard line on the debt ceiling inexplicable.

From Bartlett's piece:

"At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the federal budget deficit didn’t just suddenly arise solely because of actions taken by Democrats over the last two years. As a recent report from Pew makes clear, the bulk of it results from a recession that began in December 2007 and actions taken by Republicans when they were in power: huge tax cuts, two unfunded wars, and new spending programs such as Medicare Part D. Furthermore, Republicans themselves admit that even if their budget plans were enacted in every detail and spending is slashed, the government would still run deficits of more than $5 trillion over the next 10 years; that is what would result from the budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, which all but 4 Republicans in the House voted for on April 15.

For the record, these are the deficits that House Republicans officially support (fiscal years): 2012: $995 billion; 2013: $698 billion; 2014: $489 billion; 2015: $431 billion; 2016: $478 billion; 2017: $407 billion; 2018: $378 billion; 2019: $415 billion; 2020: $405 billion; and 2021: $391 billion.

To vote for $5 trillion in additional deficits – not to mention all of the legislation that got us to today’s deficit – and then oppose allowing the Treasury to borrow funds to cover the lost revenue from tax cuts and the spending Congress enacted into law is nothing but reckless grandstanding."

It's not merely reckless, it's outright dangerous.