Most important, he has that quintessential characteristic of the modern conservative â total denial of the recent past. Ryan was instrumental and supportive of the most fiscally reckless administration in modern times. He gave us a massive new unfunded entitlement, two off-budget wars and was key to ensuring that the Bowles-Simpson plan was dead-on-arrival. This alleged fire-fighter â whose credentials are perceived as impeccable in Washington â just quit being an arsonist⦠But, no, he is not a serious fiscal conservative. Not even close. In 2012, decades after supply-side economics was proven not to add more revenues than it gave back, Ryan is still a true-believer. His view is that if you cut taxes massively, you will decrease the debt. But this is the primary reason we currently have the massive debt that began its ascent under Reagan, was arrested by Bush and Clinton and then exploded under Bush and Ryan. Worse, Ryan believes that you can cut taxes drastically, increase defense spending massively and still cut the debt. This, to put it mildly, is Zombie-Reaganomics. Tax rates are already far lower than they were in 1980 â and canât be cut still further and have the same impact. Besides, our problem right now is obviously lack of demand, rather than enervated supply. Companies are sitting on piles of cash. Interest rates are very very low. And yet we struggle under a debt burden Ryan would immediately drastically increase, with a promise to get to a balanced budget somewhere near the middle of the century. It makes zero sense to me⦠On the Republican side, we now have a debt-reduction plan that actually cuts tax rates for the very rich along with everyone else, vastly increases defense spending, and âbalancesâ the entire thing on gutting care for the old, the poor and the sick (the Medicaid proposal is truly Darwinian) and ending loopholes (which Ryan refuses to specify). Iâm all for ending loopholes but even then, we wouldnât get a balanced budget for three decades because of all the defense spending and tax cutting. This isnât conservatism. Itâs rightist theology. In a fiscal emergency, the Republicans are proposing not clear remedies but ideological fantasies that were already disproven in 1990. They have learned nothing. And the immense damage they inflicted on this countryâs fiscal health in the last decade would be nothing compared to what would come under a Ryan-Romney administration. http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-vs-fiscal-conservatism.html
Once again we have Free Thinker who never really thinks at all. Just plagiarizes and regurgitates the lies from the left in the endless web search for confirmation of one's closet Bolshevik Socialist beliefs. Move out of the parents basement and get a life!
This is a typical "from the right" ad hominem attack. The bills and votes are in Ryan's record and are easy to find, try refuting them.
Im reminded me of an old lawyer's joke: "When the facts go against you, stress the law; when the law is against you, emphasis the facts; when your case has both the law and the facts against it, call the other lawyer an a**hole."
It wouldn't matter if I went to the trouble to point out opposing views with facts and links. All it would do is encourage another round of vomited Socialist propaganda. And then end as all debates with the left end...being called an idiot, or a moron, or a bigot, or a racist...or ...
See correction in red above. Very dishonest to attribute previous deficits/surpluses to Presidents, then during the period of most dramatic deficit, blame it on some obscure congressman instead of the sitting president. I'm fine with the article trying to make a point about Ryan, but it completely discredits the author when he doesn't own up to the fact that the current President has added an unbelievable amount of debt and has no plan to curtail this if re-elected. Ok, Ryan isn't fiscally conservative. Since the article is criticizing Ryan for this, it must then follow that being fiscally liberal is a bad thing. So is Andrew Sullivan implying that Obama is fiscally conservative, or is he simply trying to take the "your guy is just as bad as my guy" approach?
yea but ryan is selling himself as the man who will balance the budget. his record shows that to be bs.
Only two movements in the last 20 years have resulted in any work toward lower deficits. Ross Perot in 1992. It resulted in a the 1994 Republican takeover of the House after 40 years. Within 5 years the budget was close to balanced. Tea-party 2010:Took back the House and is building momentum to reduce spending. Between 9/11/2001 and 11/2010 spending went overboard. Since Obama has not passed a budget he is living off the 2007 budget with its automatic 7% raises.