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Tuesday, March 20. 2012

The Choice, Not An Echo

Congressman Paul Ryan, Chair of the House Budget Committee, presented his Republican budget.


This graph from the plan sums it up nicely:


 


The Washington Post reports:



“Each of these people running for president have all given their various ideas and reforms that perfectly jive with and are consistent with what we’re proposing,” Ryan said.


Reaction from the White House was immediate and sharp.

Posted by Bruce Kesler at 15:31 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Boy, this is gonna' fly fast and far with the Entitlement bloc. Ryan needs to learn that we have to nibble slowly around the edges for a long time to arrive at something like this, just like the commu redistributionists have done for the last several generations to get us where we are now. The alternative is to let our dysfunctional system go ahead and self destruct, then hope to form a functional system from the remnants.
#1 BillH on 2012-03-20 17:08 (Reply)
But look at the time scale on that graph. We don't get rid of the debt until 2050. How slow does slow have to be?

I think the self-destruct scenario is more likely. After all, the future projection labeled "Current Path" presumes that someone out there is stupid enough to keep buying US Treasury securities and 'lending' us the money to increase the debt. At what point does just paying the interest consume the entire GDP?
#1.1 ruralcounsel on 2012-03-21 08:07 (Reply)
Operative is nibble around the edges, i.e. don't show your hand, as this graph does. Slowly makes the nibbling less noticeable.
#1.1.1 BillH on 2012-03-21 09:48 (Reply)
Dems have offered no budget for 3 years.

There is a reason for that.
#2 Bird Dog on 2012-03-20 18:03 (Reply)
+1

Last year, Ryan & Co. offered a good budget. Senate Democrats refused, saying, "We don't need no steekin' budget!" Even after winning a lop-sided election victory in 2010, Republicans refused to defend Ryan's budget. To the Senate Democrats, they should have said, "No budget, no spending, not one red cent. Close the doors, send the workers home!" Instead, they caved. Which is why, as I've written here before, I am no longer a Republican, although I remain a Conservative. Will this year---an election year during which the Democrats will try to give the entire government store away---be any different? Has the Republican Party found a backbone? Yeah, sure. Are there palm trees and sandy beaches in Greenland?
#2.1 Agent Cooper on 2012-03-20 20:55 (Reply)
Although spineless (and this is not new; think back to the pre-Gingrich days of Republicanism), the Republicans are still the lesser of two evils. Hold your nose and cast a meaningful vote.
#2.1.1 BillH on 2012-03-21 09:53 (Reply)
Exactly...in politics like much of life you'll never get the ideal and the ideal is relative to the individual anyways, so the best you can do is go with the least worst option. It may sound cynical, but I think it is really simply pragmatic. Now while going with the least worst option available there is nothing stopping anyone from arguing for the ideal. Perhaps it will help shift the least worst options in a better direction.
#2.1.1.1 phil g on 2012-03-21 11:18 (Reply)
You misspelled it.
Should be, "A choice, not an ego."
#3 PacRim Jim (Link) on 2012-03-21 05:59 (Reply)

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