- Sep 2, 2008
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- #21
no, I wasn't pointing so much to the "substance" of his post, the number is clearly ridiculous, no doubt, just that greenbeard would even stick his toe in on this like so..
Well the number is clearly ridiculous. Which is in part why it's absurdly optimistic. The person who created the model that Heritage used cannot figure how they got those numbers. That alone speaks volumes.
The author of the article you posted gives Ryan credit for someone in the GOP finally backing up the rhetoric they've been spouting.
There are, of course, some sleight-of-hand tricks in Ryan's plan. What he claims would restore fiscal balance would do nothing of the kind over the next decade, leaving $400 billion in annual deficits as far as the eye can see. That's because he slips a large tax cut into his "reform," leaving government revenues perpetually two percentage points lower than spending expenditures as a share of GDP. What's needed is not more tax cuts but a modest tax increase, of the kind the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission proposed. That failure is easily remedied, however, by adopting a top rate higher than the 25 percent he proposes, though still lower than the current 35 percent level.
Ryan also evades a lot of difficult particulars. He seldom spells out domestic spending cuts, preferring to kick the can down the road by applying "caps." He skirts the question of which deductions and tax subsidies he'd eliminate to pay for these lower rates. Unfortunately, you don't get big savings unless you eliminate mortgage interest and charitable deductions, which would be politically unpopular. Ryan includes the Heritage Foundation's projections about job growth triggered by his plan4 percent unemployment in 2015 vs. 5.9 percent without the planthat are a supply-side fantasy. His anti-bailout rhetoric is silly pandering. I could go on.
The lowering of the tax rates as proposed by Ryan is one of the key components of his plan. He doesn't even touch defense. All his plan is deciding to take a knife to medicare. I said before and I'll say it again, any budget plan that wishes for everyone to make sacrifices except the rich and Pentagon cannot be taken fully seriously.