Paul Ryan's insane budget proposal

[leftysergeant]

the problem with massive capital gains tax cuts is that they actually free up money for investment in things that are harmful to the over all ecconomy, like diddling the commodities market so that nobody can produce or move products because fuel costs too much.

 

[Neally]

I guess Clinton falls into the "Social Darwinism" that BO called Ryan's budget. He also called it “antithetical to our entire history” and “a radical vision.”

When Clinton left office, spending was 18.2 percent of economic output yet Ryans budget only reduces the burden of federal spending to 20.25 percent of GDP by the year 2023.

 

[leftysergeant]

I guess Clinton falls into the "Social Darwinism" that BO called Ryan's budget. He also called it “antithetical to our entire history” and “a radical vision.”

This makes utterly no sense, lacking, as it does, any context or clue as to what you mean. In what way do you think that any of Clinton's policies resemble the little jerk's budget proposal?

I think Ryan showed just how delusional he is when he said that some aspect or another of his budget would lead insurance companies to want to compete for the business of seniors on Medicare.

Whatever that boy is smoking should remain illegal in the event that weed is legalized.

 

[Neally]

This makes utterly no sense, lacking, as it does, any context or clue as to what you mean. In what way do you think that any of Clinton's policies resemble the little jerk's budget proposal?

The end result gets us to spending more as a % of output than where Clinton was at. Let's see if the Dems can do better, getting spending back to where Clinton was at, yet somehow not make it "antithetical to our entire history."

 

[AlexW]

What was the percent of the budget spent on Medicare when Clinton was president? I'm guessing it wasn't as high as it is now. The real travesty of the Ryan budget is in it's cap on discretionary spending (the non-entitlement stuff). It's something like 3.75 percent, and includes defense spending--which historically averages 2.5-3.0 percent; and he wants to increase that bit. So the rest of the federal goverment gets to survice on 0.75 percent. Nice. If "starve the beast" is your program, then that's all well and good; but you can't avoid the attendant hard choices that emanate from that and pretend it's all going to be puppy dogs and roses. Ezra Klein and a few others have done some pretty cogent analyses of the practical impact of that cap; as well as Obama in a recent speach that all the republicans called "bullying". Really.