Ryan Roundup: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan’s Budget

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/ryan-2/

Paul Ryan isn’t a deficit hawk. He’s a conservative reformer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/11/paul-ryan-isnt-a-deficit-hawk-hes-a-conservative-reformer/

The Republican ticket’s big Medicare myth

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/13/the-white-houses-medicare-plan-isnt-that-hard-to-find/

"The truth is that the Ryan budget’s largest long-term savings don’t come from Medicaid or Medicare or Social Security, or even Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security put together. They come from everything else. Ryan says that under his budget, everything the federal government does that is not Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security will be cut to less than 3.75 percent of GDP by 2050. That means defense, infrastructure, education, food safety, energy research, national parks, civil service, the FBI — all of it. Right now, that category of spending is 12.5 percent of GDP.

Critics point out that defense alone has always cost more than 3 percent of GDP, that Romney has promised to keep defense spending above 4 percent of GDP, and that the cuts to government services required to make those numbers work are beyond draconian. They also note that Ryan’s plan increases defense spending in the short term, and that his tax cuts have a 10-year price tag of more than $4 trillion, but he’s not identified any offsets.

Ryan is also known as having a deep allergy to debt. But such a  concern isn’t evident in his voting record. He voted for the George W. Bush tax cuts, as well as the war in Iraq and the unfunded Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Perhaps his most ambitious policy proposal prior to his celebrated budgets was the Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act of 2005, a plan to privatize Social Security. The program’s actuaries found that Ryan’s plan would require $2.4 trillion in additional costs over the first 10 years, and the Bush administration ultimately dismissed it as “irresponsible.”

On Medicare, Ryan originally proposed eliminating the traditional Medicare plan entirely and replacing it with a menu of private plans. He subsequently softened the proposal to include the traditional Medicare plan as one option on the menu, But either way, he would remake Medicare from a defined-benefit plan, in which seniors are simply guaranteed Medicare coverage, to a defined-contribution plan, in which they are given a voucher equal to the cost of the cheapest plans on the menu, and if they don’t want those plans, they have to pay the difference.

On Medicaid, Ryan proposed turning the program over to the states and limiting the federal contribution — which now increases alongside Medicaid’s actual expenses — to block grants that grow more slowly than health-care costs. The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that this would cut Medicaid spending by more than $700 billion over the next decade, but at the cost of throwing between 14 and 19 million people, many of them children, off Medicaid.

The list goes on. Ryan’s Social Security proposal, which was among the most ambitious put forward by any member of Congress, would have diverted Social Security contributions into private accounts. Ryan’s health-reform proposal would have ended the tax exclusion for employer-based health care and replaced it with a refundable tax credit for individuals. Ryan has even sponsored legislation ending the requirement that the Federal Reserve work to achieve full employment.

Some of these policies, like Ryan’s Medicaid plan, would reduce deficits. Some of them, like his tax plan, would be likely to increase them. Many of them would have an unclear effect, which is why Ryan’s savings tend to come from instructions he gives the Congressional Budget Office to assume that Congress sticks to extremely austere spending paths — that is how, for instance, he gets all non-entitlement spending down to 3.75 percent of GDP by 2050.

But the real north star of Ryan’s policy record isn’t deficits or spending, though he often uses those concerns in service of his agenda. It’s radically reforming the way the federal government provides public services, usually by privatizing or devolving those public services away from the federal government."
---Ezra Klein Washington Post

One of the best economic blogs that is regularly calling Bullshit on Ryan is Ezra Klien. Ryan won't appear on the same program with Klien because Klein makes him look like the real dunce he is.
You can see Klein wipe the floor with bullshitter Ryan here every day from now until we embalm Ryan and Mitt-Bott.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein

-- Modified on 8/14/2012 2:53:08 AM

It's no surprise that a crazy old coot like Bowles, who has wanted to kill Social Security for years, would cum in his pants on Ryan's plan to kill Medicare.

It also doesn't make any sense fiscally. Social Security doesn't contribute a damn dime to the federal deficit.

As for Ryan, anyone who wants to increase defense spending and give rich people more tax cuts isn't serious about the deficit. As the saying goes, talk is cheap.

A chart that compares Obama's budget with ryans, and you'll see that they're not very different at all.. So either you are a partisan hack, and it's ok when your guy does it, and not ok with Obama does it...Or you will dig deeper into what is really in his budget, and stop identifying with EITHER side...


Because they're BOTH the exact same evil


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-mitt-romneys-selection-paul-ryan-sign-desperation



-- Modified on 8/14/2012 2:05:11 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r5NJF5Fcvmg

So, it's pretty easy to take cheap shots at Ryan and his so called plan.  Just as other European countries have already found, fixing a problem where social programs are now too expensive and threaten to destroy the entire economy is not pretty.  But as some of you begin your diatribe about Ryan, stop for a minute and consider the dem's ( obama ) plan.  Woops, I forgot, they don't have a plan at all now do they.  Why is that?  Could it be that they are just stupid and willing to let SS and medicade destroy themselves.  I mean afterall, no one disputes the apparent fact that the programs will self destruct  in about 8 to ten years.  Oh, I get it, Obama doesn't give a shit what happens then and neither do the dems.  They are perfectly content to ignore the issue and thus not put anything out there for folks to criticize since their only objective is to get re-elected.  To hell with the country, the self destructing programs, and anything else that won't actually happen in the next four years.  Let it ride and let somebody else deal with it down the road.  What a bunch of self serving cowards.  Whatever might be objectionable with Ryan's so called plan, at least he has a plan which he is brave enough to put forward for the greater good.  A plan I might add which many seem to think is likely to save the very programs that the dems would have you believe they support.  Is there anything the dems won't lie about to get elected?