PAUL KRUGMAN: The Flimflam Man or 'The Audacity of Dopes'

[babylonsister]

The Flimflam Man
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 5, 2010


One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans. You might have thought, given past experience, that D.C. insiders would be on their guard against conservatives with grandiose plans. But no: as long as someone on the right claims to have bold new proposals, he’s hailed as an innovative thinker. And nobody checks his arithmetic.

Which brings me to the innovative thinker du jour: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Mr. Ryan has become the Republican Party’s poster child for new ideas thanks to his “Roadmap for America’s Future,” a plan for a major overhaul of federal spending and taxes. News media coverage has been overwhelmingly favorable; on Monday, The Washington Post put a glowing profile of Mr. Ryan on its front page, portraying him as the G.O.P.’s fiscal conscience. He’s often described with phrases like “intellectually audacious.”

But it’s the audacity of dopes. Mr. Ryan isn’t offering fresh food for thought; he’s serving up leftovers from the 1990s, drenched in flimflam sauce.

Mr. Ryan’s plan calls for steep cuts in both spending and taxes. He’d have you believe that the combined effect would be much lower budget deficits, and, according to that Washington Post report, he speaks about deficits “in apocalyptic terms.” And The Post also tells us that his plan would, indeed, sharply reduce the flow of red ink: “The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan would cut the budget deficit in half by 2020.”

But the budget office has done no such thing. At Mr. Ryan’s request, it produced an estimate of the budget effects of his proposed spending cuts — period. It didn’t address the revenue losses from his tax cuts.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/opinion/06krugman.html?_r=1

[flpoljunkie]

1. A must read and one to also bookmark, as Wapo ins't only media outlet who adores Ryan!

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has, however, stepped into the breach. Its numbers indicate that the Ryan plan would reduce revenue by almost $4 trillion over the next decade. If you add these revenue losses to the numbers The Post cites, you get a much larger deficit in 2020, roughly $1.3 trillion.

And that’s about the same as the budget office’s estimate of the 2020 deficit under the Obama administration’s plans. That is, Mr. Ryan may speak about the deficit in apocalyptic terms, but even if you believe that his proposed spending cuts are feasible — which you shouldn’t — the Roadmap wouldn’t reduce the deficit. All it would do is cut benefits for the middle class while slashing taxes on the rich.

And I do mean slash. The Tax Policy Center finds that the Ryan plan would cut taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population in half, giving them 117 percent of the plan’s total tax cuts. That’s not a misprint. Even as it slashed taxes at the top, the plan would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population.

~After 2020, the main alleged saving would come from sharp cuts in Medicare, achieved by dismantling Medicare as we know it, and instead giving seniors vouchers and telling them to buy their own insurance. Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s the same plan Newt Gingrich tried to sell in 1995.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/opinion/06krugman.html?_r=1&hp

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

2. Here in Milwaukee....

we're subjected to this empty suit on a nearly daily basis. I think the local media is so in love with the idea that the national media adores somebody from the area, they're practically orgasmic in their coverage.

Makes me want to hurl. Especially, as Krugman points out, when you consider that he's offering nothing new.

[alterfurz]

3. Ryan's Roadmap = Highway to Hell

Here in Wisconsin we have a long-standing tradition of both the best (Feingold, Nelson, La Follette) and the worst (McCarthy, Sensenbrenner, Thompson)--and at barely 40, Paul Ryan is busily cementing his position among the latter. He even combs his hair exactly like Reagan!

[alsame]

4. I think the media loves the packaging. Compared to most of the

GOP, Ryan is young, attractive and articulate. That's why they use him to sell the same old snake oil.

[jenmito]

5. He also wears eyeliner quite often. I saw him being interviewed on C-Span one day and

it was obvious he had on a lot of eyeliner. I even started a thread on it at the time. He's obviously running on his looks complete with his Eddie Munster-like hair.

[alsame]

6. Eddie Munster hair!! LOL, you're right, Jen! nt

[jenmito]

8. I'm glad you see it, too! :)

[Yavin4]

7. Whenever Someone Has A Bright Idea, You Should Always Ask At Least These Two Questions

1) What assumptions are you making?

2) What are the downside risks to your idea?

In the answer to no. 1, Mr. Ryan is making the huge assumption that private sector job growth will be strong enough to absorb the shrinking social safety net and the loss of various services that the government currently provides. For example, if you reduce medicare and medicaid spending, people will need additional revenue in their lives to make up for the lost services. Supposedly, that additional revenue would come from increased jobs in the private sector.

This is a major assumption that he's making given the extremely tepid private sector job growth that we've seen so far in this century. If anything MORE government services are needed not less.

In the answer to no. 2, the downside risks are frightening. Less government spending in a negative private job growth world literally means putting huge segments of the population at the mercy of charitable organizations like food banks and homeless shelters. We'd also would see a rise in the poverty rate among the elderly.

In a world with a decent media, those two questions would be asked each and every time at the very least.

[Phx_Dem]

9. Ryan was supposed to be one of the GOP up and coming golden boys.

ROLF. Turns out, he's just as full of shit and lies as the rest of them.

[Spazito]

10. LOL, I love the headline!

I suspect there are a few here who clicked on the link in hopes Mr. Krugman's 'target' was someone other than Mr. Ryan, lol.

Good read, thanks for the link, much appreciated.

Recommended.