Belle Sawhill Is Shrill
I confess I thought I would never see it: Belle Sawhill losing it...
Belle Sawhille on the Paul Ryan budget:
Democracy Journal: On Tuesday morning, Republican Representative Paul Ryan released a budget plan that would slash spending over the next few decades with no increase in taxes and very limited cuts to defense programs. It’s like a stool with only one leg. It will not stand Although it’s a wobbly stool—in both political and in policy terms—it will have a big impact on the debate. David Brooks calls it “a moment of truth,” noting that despite a presidential commission that has issued a bold plan for getting our fiscal house in order, the President failed to endorse its work....
[We] should be unabashed in labeling the Ryan plan for what it is: an ideological manifesto for a Tea-Party-dominated Republican Party... voodoo economics is back in full gear... tax reform... [could] produce a fairer, simpler, and more pro-growth system... [to] plugg [the] big hole in the budget... wealthy Americans have made out like bandits in recent decades and that it’s time to do something for working families... rethink America’s defense... reforms to Medicare and Medicaid... only if they’re combined with additional revenues and a more streamlined military.
Voodoo Economics. The economic projections in the plan are straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Big cuts in spending produce an unemployment rate of 2.8 percent. Wow. The Mad Hatter has joined the Tea Party....
Unfortunately any hope that Ryan would rise above party politics and seek compromise with Democrats or even the moderates in his own party has been dashed by this proposal. At bottom, his plan is an ideological platform for the 2012 campaign—a Tea Party manifesto clothed in some nice rhetoric and sprinkled with a few good ideas.
