Matt Taibbi on "young, prickish, over-coiffed, anal-retentive deficit Robespierre" Paul Ryan

[Amerigo Vespucci]

POSTED: April 7, 11:52 AM ET | By Matt Taibbi
Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/tax-cuts-for-the-rich-on-the-backs-of-the-middle-class-or-paul-ryan-has-balls-20110407



House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan holds a copy of his budget proposal "The Path to Prosperity" during a news conference on April 5, 2011

Paul Ryan, the Republican Party’s latest entrant in the seemingly endless series of young, prickish, over-coiffed, anal-retentive deficit Robespierres they’ve sent to the political center stage in the last decade or so, has come out with his new budget plan. All of these smug little jerks look alike to me – from Ralph Reed to Eric Cantor to Jeb Hensarling to Rand Paul and now to Ryan, they all look like overgrown kids who got nipple-twisted in the halls in high school, worked as Applebee’s shift managers in college, and are now taking revenge on the world as grownups by defunding hospice care and student loans and Sesame Street. They all look like they sleep with their ties on, and keep their feet in dress socks when doing their bi-monthly duty with their wives.

Every few years or so, the Republicans trot out one of these little whippersnappers, who offer proposals to hack away at the federal budget. Each successive whippersnapper inevitably tries, rhetorically, to out-mean the previous one, and their proposals are inevitably couched as the boldest and most ambitious deficit-reduction plans ever seen. Each time, we are told that these plans mark the end of the budgetary reign of terror long ago imposed by the entitlement system begun by FDR and furthered by LBJ.

Never mind that each time the Republicans actually come into power, federal deficit spending explodes and these whippersnappers somehow never get around to touching Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. The key is that for the many years before that moment of truth, before these buffoons actually get a chance to put their money where their lipless little mouths are, they will stomp their feet and scream about how entitlements are bringing us to the edge of apocalypse.

The reason for this is always the same: the Republicans, quite smartly, recognize that there is great political hay to be made in the appearance of deficit reduction, and that white middle class voters will respond with overwhelming enthusiasm to any call for reductions in the “welfare state,” a term which said voters will instantly associate with black welfare moms and Mexicans sneaking over the border to visit American emergency rooms.

[Ken Burch]

1. Paul Ryan looks like somebody else...let's see...who could it be...

Oh yeah...

[Myrina]

14. Don't flatter Ryan ...

... he doesn't have the looks, the stones or the personal conviction/loyalty to be a Corleone.

[PatSeg]

21. He reminds me more of a brunette

Dennis the Menace.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PatSeg]

40. Actually they call themselves

"The American People", as in the American people want us to cut spending or in November the American people spoke loudly and clearly. Last I checked, I was an American people and I don't remember saying I want all the stuff they say I want. Guess the rules have changed and 20% or less of the population can decide what the rest of us want and need.

Oh yes, The American People want someone with bright orange hair standing behind Paul Ryan (maybe he is Ryan's ventriloquist?).

[SharonAnn]

38. No, no. The little kid from the Munsters or the Adams family. Can't remember which.

[midnight]

2. We need to rebrand what being a human being is all about...

These lipless souls need to be reminded about what life is all about....

[dkf]

3. What's with the name calling?

Don't know why that is relevant

[cascadiance]

4. I thought it was very well done to just "slightly" echo the even worse adjectives I'd give him!

"Prickish" seems to be a very NICE way to put what I really think that B*ST*RD should be called for the evil he's conducting!

I'm glad that someone at least has the nerve to try and partially call this spade the spade he is!

All of those people that wanted to dump their trash on Boehner's lawn if they had a shutdown and the DC trash service stopped. I think Ryan would deserve that more than Boehner honestly!

[dkf]

12. I'm pretty sick of name calling period.

I'd like just the facts and it kind of ruins the piece for me. Maybe it's meant to attract readers who feels a certain way.

[cascadiance]

22. I think the corporate media's "nice" characterization of him is just as much of a problem...

I'd rather have the honest and more "name calling" description that Taibi gives him than the characterization of him by the "mainstream" corporate media which even more falsely characterizes him as a "nice young man" with a good plan that completely distorts the absolute CRAP he's trying to inflict on America! And yes at least what he's doing absolutely DESERVES those kind of adjectives!

[indepat]

27. The characterization of mindless, disingenuous, gutless, soulless and holistically cravenly evil

would not be up to the task as an apt description imnsho. :patriot:

[femrap]

34. It attracts

people like me who are VERY ANGRY at the cruelty that these rich, little white dudes want to do to the elderly, poor and working poor.

It's a release of that anger...and it helps me to deal with this pathetic, fascist nation in which I live.

What would you call the guy in the background with the ORANGE HAIR???

Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" (for the rich and corporate) will actually kill people.

[StarburstClock]

10. As if discussing actual issues and reality with him would be relevant?

The name-calling is a perfect description of a young republican who tries to sell lies. Other words that would fit are "whore" and "con man".

[cognoscere]

13. In a word, taxonomy. It helps identify the assholes from non-assholes. N/T

[Siouxmealso]

15. It's easier

Rather than criticize each element of the Ryan plan, which would actually educate people as to why it's a bad idea, Taibbi opts for the intellectually easy route of just calling him names. Given his target audience it's probably not a bad strategy for a writer of his talent.

[PatSeg]

24. This is just Matt Taibbi's style of writing

and he does paint very vivid pictures. Also he does not even spare himself with the name calling. "....David Brooks – like me a coddled, overcompensated media yuppie whose idea of sacrifice is raking one’s own leaves..."

With his humor and name calling, he manages to grab readers' attention and then he follows up with huge doses of facts and some uncanny insights. If his writing was just a litany of insults, I wouldn't bother reading him and he probably wouldn't have a job at Rolling Stone.

As for Paul Ryan or Eric Cantor or Ralph Reed, he nailed it, they are "smug little jerks".

[JDPriestly]

5. If you like Matt Taibbi, be sure to read Griftopia. It is really great.

As for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, they won't happen because the choice is to pay to keep seniors alive and well or let them die.

And, no matter how you try to cut and dice the economic pie, seniors cannot support themselves. Those who are fit enough to work can't get jobs.

So, funding for seniors is a huge problem. A person working for the average wage and raising a family with two kids can't save enough to ever pay for retirement.

And most young people are not able to earn enough to support their parents as well as their own children unless they pool their resources -- which is what Social Security is about.

If you are young, ask yourself, what would you do if your elderly parents or aging parents did not have Social Security or Medicare. Would you be able to pay for your parents' housing, food and medical care? Would you be able to house, clothe, feed and buy medications for your parents?

Thought not. So, Social Security and Medicare are probably more necessary than defense spending. Give up the thought of ending or cutting these "entitlements." Social Security and Medicare were created for good reason -- to spread the burden of providing for the elderly across the younger population.

[ejpoeta]

7. social security is fine. merely raising the cap would solve the problems that may

exist down the line with it. it's medicare that is hurting because of rising costs. medicare for all would solve that. if everyone paid their premiums into the medicare program and we all used it then it would not have problems. most of us pay into a for profit system while we don't use it and then by the time we are eligible for medicare we will most defintely need it. we need everyone paying into the same pool so that all the healthy people who don't need it right now can help the ones who DO need it now. don't understand why people don't get that. when we are no longer in the for profit system after we paid all that money, now money plus a hefty deductible that ensures we will be hard pressed to ever see a dime from our insurance companies, where does that money go they DIDN'T spend on our healthcare? their pockets. why people think this is acceptable is beyond me.

[JDPriestly]

20. I'm with you, ejpoeta

[PatSeg]

31. I agree Social Security is fine and the solution for future

problems is an easy fix. As for Medicare, it also would help if there was less Medicare fraud like the kind Rick Scott committed. I'm quite sure it is far more prevalent that most people realize.

[femrap]

35. Please remember that the Prez

REDUCED THE CONTRIBUTION to SOCIAL SECURITY....to 5%. Why the hell did he do that but to make SS appear to be in worse shape???

Why the hell did he do that? It actually is bad for the worker....providing the worker LESS for retirement.

[Enthusiast]

43. The fraud could be reined in

if there was a will to do so.

[PatSeg]

45. Exactly

But why go after the greedy when you can go after the needy?

[IDemo]

25. Seconded

He does a great job of filling in all the gory details behind the greatest theft in history.

If name-calling offends anyone, I might recommend avoiding Taibbi or recognizing that he feels strongly about this stuff.

[iwishiwas]

6. Obama is set to join him with cuts to Medicare.

[druidity33]

8. With a widow's peak like that...

he's obviously a descendant of Dracula... bloodsucking fucker.

:mad:

[RevStPatrick]

9. It's generational warfare.

Paul Ryan's slacker/GenX generation has entered the halls of power, and in true slacker fashion, he puts out a superficial, mediocre piece of rubbish and gives it a grandiose title like "The Path to Prosperity" believing that will give it some weight. The reality is that he and his GenX cohorts are trying to fuck over the Boomers who got to see the Beatles at Shea and screw like bunnies without worrying about AIDS.

It's generational jealousy, and Paul's (and my) generation of slackers are among the shallowest generations in American history...

[femrap]

36. That's a great analysis....I'm

glad to see it come from a member of Ryan's generation. I've felt that way for awhile, but I didn't want to be accused of 'Get off my lawn.'

You don't seem shallow at all.

And I did get to see The Beatles....TWICE. First in Toronto and again in Cincinnati....and I was raised by a single mother who didn't mind taking a bus to Toronto and staying with friends. But my generation did pay w/ AIDS. I lost so many friends. It changed my life...for the worse. But we did have a lot of Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll! And the cost of a college education was very reasonable.

Welcome to DU.

[ElboRuum]

42. Please speak for yourself.

Generational broad-brushing has never ended well here. I would advise against it.

Actually, if you look at the bulk of the Republicans in Congress (who have been trying to defund/destroy/regress every New Deal program for years) the vast majority are of the older sort. The Repubs trot out a young shill like Ryan to try to appeal to us who, strangely, most of us I find aren't slackers at all. In fact, I've been trying to figure out who these slackers were since they were labeled as such.

So, not only is your post a bit offensive, it's off the mark. Truthfully, I know a few "slackers" and they are rather evenly spaced across all living generations. I just feel bad that you feel bad about your immediate peers specifically. Maybe you've just been meeting the wrong sort?

Slack is something to be pursued. It cannot be conferred by labels.

[RevStPatrick]

44. OK, fair enough...

Interestingly, I think I agree a little bit more with the person who disagreed with me than with the person who agreed with me.

Funny how that works!

[oneAngryOhioDem]

11. Where's FDR when we need him?

"Each time, we are told that these plans mark the end of the budgetary reign of terror long ago imposed by the entitlement system begun by FDR and furthered by LBJ."

We need the return of FDR and LBJ. Presidents with conviction, determination and backbone. We sure don't have that right now and President Obama (whom I supported) looks like he's going to give in to whatever these Tea Party morons want. Profits over people, money before human welfare, greed rules all. When will enough be enough?! We need an actual Democrat to fight for the American people, not the bend-over-and-take-it "leader" we have now. Please Mr. President remember the D by your name.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. Love his name for Ryan.

[SheilaT]

17. Love it!

"the Republican Party’s latest entrant in the seemingly endless series of young, prickish, over-coiffed, anal-retentive deficit Robespierres they’ve sent to the political center stage in the last decade or so. . ."

I'm a huge admirer of Matt Taibbi and I did recently read Griftopia.

Clearly none of these young a**holes do not know anyone who depends on Medicare or Social Security for even part of their medical care or income. And none of them imagine needing such help themselves.

I'm reminded of how many Tea Partier's get Social Security and Medicare yet have no clue that either one is a government program.

[Little Star]

18. Matt Taibbi, is usually right! k&r

[bertman]

19. And then there are the knuckle-draggin', Beck-lovin', macho dipshits

and their equally ignorant and ill-informed female counterparts who buy into the simplistic and idiotically and provably false premises of the nipple-twistees.

Dawg bless 'Merka!

REC.

[Search4Justice]

23. K & R

[katty]

26. go Matt he writes it as he sees it! GOP: we worship the rich

and work tirelessly for them only.

[_ed_]

28. Eddie Munster

It's indicative of how absolutely horrible the Beltway media is when they elevate this fucking clown as some kind of intelligent budget expert. His entire budget is predicated upon tax cuts generating more revenue, which is a fairy tale.

[femrap]

37. Yes....Eddie Munster....

very good. Thanks for the laugh.

[GoCubsGo]

29. "Prickish"?

Ummmmm, Matt.... They embody the word "prick".

[OwnedByFerrets]

30. K and R

[Canuckistanian]

32. I remember the over-coiffed prick in the 90s, someone called Gingrich

They can't be circumcised because there's no end to these pricks.

[femrap]

39. But as the Prez

says....'Use a scalpel instead of an axe' on these pricks!

[travelingtypist]

41. Don't miss the "media assholes like David Brooks."

Bravo!

K&R for truth.

[The Wizard]

46. Ryan looks like

a funeral parlor doorman.