Krugman: The Ryan Role

[ProSense]

The Ryan Role

Mark Kleiman points us to a lamentable but revealing column by William Saletan, which illustrates perfectly how the essentially ludicrous Paul Ryan has gotten so far – namely, by playing to the gullibility of self-proclaimed centrists, who want to show their “balance” by finding a conservative to praise.

Saletan writes:

Ryan is a real fiscal conservative. He isn’t just another Tea-Party ideologue spouting dogma about less government and the magic of free enterprise. He has actually crunched the numbers and laid out long-term budget proposals.

OK, what? Where is that coming from? Did Saletan miss the whole discussion when the Ryan plan came out? Did he miss the point where even Jacob Weisberg apologized for his initial praise, admitting that

I reacted too quickly and didn’t sort out just how laughable Ryan’s long-term spending projections were. His plan projects an absurd future, according to the Congressional Budget Office, in which all discretionary spending, now around 12 percent of GDP, shrinks to 3 percent of GDP by 2050. Defense spending alone was 4.7 percent of GDP in 2009. With numbers like that, Ryan is more an anarchist-libertarian than honest conservative.

Look, Ryan hasn’t “crunched the numbers”; he has just scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense. He asserts that he can cut taxes without net loss of revenue by closing unspecified loopholes; he asserts that he can cut discretionary spending to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge, without saying how; he asserts that he can convert Medicare to a voucher system, with much lower spending than now projected, without even a hint of how this is supposed to work. This is just a fantasy, not a serious policy proposal.

So why does Saletan believe otherwise? Has he crunched the numbers himself? Of course not. What he’s doing – and what the whole Beltway media crowd has done – is to slot Ryan into a role someone is supposed to be playing in their political play, that of the thoughtful, serious conservative wonk. In reality, Ryan is nothing like that; he’s a hard-core conservative, with a voting record as far right as Michelle Bachman’s, who has shown no competence at all on the numbers thing.

- more -

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/the-ryan-role/

[spanone]

1. k&r...

[Junkdrawer]

2. "playing in their political play"

Careful Krugman, you're showing much too much love of truth. And you know what happens to Truthers.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

4. That was the line that jumped out at me...

"What the whole Beltway media crowd has done – is to slot Ryan into a role someone is supposed to be playing in their political play"

The MSM is all about telling a compelling story, whether there's a shred of actual truth to it or not. And Paul Ryan supposed to be the studious "voice of reason" in an otherwise insane Republican Party. But the fact is, he's wallowing in his own feces just like the rest of them.

The Ryan Plan is not so much a "plan" as it is a conservative whacking material -- an outline of their vision of an America that resembles the intersection of "Oliver Twist" and "Blade Runner."

[JHB]

6. Krugman has a Ferris-wheel seat on the bus...

...on it, under it, on it, under it, on it, under it... etc.

[CTyankee]

3. Paul Krugman, I love you!

[JHB]

5. He's "Johnny Bravo"! He fits the suit!

(Greg Brady version, not the cartoon lunkhead with the Elvis voice)

[JBoy]

15. LOL. Perfect reference!

[gkhouston]

7. Finally! I'm fed to the teeth with assertions that Ryan is "bold" and "brilliant".

His math stinks and his plans are based on wish fulfillment.

[Cosmocat]

10. He is a fucking fraud

I have been saying that since the plan got all puffed up by the "liberal media"

A quick, COMMON SENSE view of his plan sees that the math does not work.

As for the play - when, seriously, WHEN was the last time a "liberal" got hyped up as serious, bold or an ideal person?

There is a NEVER ENDING stream of republican STARS!

Christie - a vile person.
Ryan - a lightweight with good hair and blue eyes.
Palin - nuff said.

I mean, it just NEVER ends, they are STARS!

Meanwhile, democrats are marginalized at every turn, and outside of maybe a Corey Booker on occasion, you NEVER see a D pumped up the way Rs are.

[ailsagirl]

13. On Hardball today...

both Mark Halperin & Howard Fineman gave PR high marks.

[bigtree]

8. great article!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

9. He's back from vacation, thank God!

Hope he got all the rest he needs because we're gonna need him over the next weeks.

[Hubert Flottz]

11. Bullshit...

is the only thing any republican has to offer.

[DallasNE]

12. Ryan Voted "Biggest Brownnoser" In High School

All this shows is how well Ryan has honed those skills over the years.

Ryan's budget is roughly 30 pages long. That is no bigger than the Forward in some books. It should not be considered as a serious document. At best, it is a series of talking points intended to fire up the base.

Saletan, as ususal, provides no data to support his opinion so it is good that Krugman exposes him as the phoney that he is. The good news it that nobody reads Slate anymore so what Saletan says has no traction.

[edhopper]

14. I said the same thing about the

Beltway pundits when Ryan was giving the nod, and got crap from a lot of folks here on DU.