Quote of the Day: Paul Krugman on Paul Ryan’s Fantasy World
August 14, 2012 5 Comments
Look, Ryan hasn’t “crunched the numbers”; he has just scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense. He asserts that he can cut taxes without net loss of revenue by closing unspecified loopholes; he asserts that he can cut discretionary spending to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge, without saying how; he asserts that he can convert Medicare to a voucher system, with much lower spending than now projected, without even a hint of how this is supposed to work. This is just a fantasy, not a serious policy proposal.
- Paul Krugman on his blog (August 13, 2012)
About Matthew
Love the quote.
Considering Romney has already distanced himself from Ryan’s plan (quickest flip-flop ever?), the shell game that Romney and Ryan will try to play with their undefined economic plan is going to make them look incredibly unprepared.
Just a day after announcing Ryan as his choice for VP, Romney said the following:
“I have my budget plan, and that’s the budget plan we’re going to run on.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gbQ_JjWRI3OyJI57MZ8tBuzYzuiA?docId=0af2834e0ffc4b91854facab66b5f243
Did they seriously not think this through?
Did they seriously expect Americans would not associate Paul Ryan with the Republican budget plan bearing his own name? What is the point of picking Paul Ryan without the Paul Ryan budget? That is like acquiring Lebron James to be your basketball team’s equipment manager.
Even if they do settle on a defined budget plan with “vision,” their campaign certainly has been lacking in foresight.
It’s gotten to the point of where I think that Romney might not lack foresight so much as he simply doesn’t care about foresight. Is that possible? I guess a combination of arrogance and stupidity would produce the same results. It’s extraordinary to me that after the notorious mess the McCain campaign made of their VP pick, here we have Romney repeating history. True, Ryan won’t be as obvious of an intellectual lightweight as Palin, but he also doesn’t have her tabloid-style charisma.
Your points about the budget are all true, and I don’t see how they get out of it. Romney’s whole game plan is predicated on NOT giving any details of what he might do once he’s in office. Whether or not he fully adopts Ryan’s plan, this puts pressure on him to talk in detail. The man does not like details.
Reblogged this on DailyDisgust and commented:
At least the Ryan budget lays bare for Americans where his priorities lie.
Yeah, they’re making fewer and fewer efforts to mask their belief that wealth makes right.
Reblogged this on Gradycarter's Blog.