Following the President's speech, there are no shortage of "counter punches" streaming forth from the GOPCon "talking machine." MeanMesa might be tempted to hoist itself "on its own petard" with some frantic effort to "truth check" a few dozen examples, but that undertaking would result in a blog post long enough to stretch from Detroit to Duluth.
Still, when examined closely, that is, perhaps over generously, the GOPCons have actually introduced a sort of continuity to their counter attack. Given the grisly underpinnings of their own "Ryan Proposal," MeanMesa has to salute their bravery and determination.
The oligarchs who control the GOPCon Party are "sticking to their guns." The world in which this latest outrage, The Path to Prosperity, was tragically still born is one where every grandmother has a trust fund, handicapped children are left on a mountain to die in the cold and millions of "little people" without boot straps are left to "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps."
The oligarchs, it seems, have already foreclosed on all the "boot straps" long ago.
So, MeanMesa looked over a few of the thousand or so choices and settled on the following as a good example of what the billionaire masters of the Republican Party are actually thinking. Enjoy.
From uncoverage.net, April, 2011
CATO Institute: Federal Spending
Ryan vs. Obama
Read the original article here.
April 5, 2011
I am going to post the many position papers explaining the Republican budget-cutting proposal as they come out today. Get behind this. Own it. Memorize it. Talk about it. Federal Spending: Ryan vs. Obama
Posted by Chris Edwards, the CATO Institute
House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, introduced his budget resolution for fiscal 2012 and beyond today entitled “The Path to Prosperity.” The plan would cut some spending programs, reduce top income tax rates, and reform Medicare and Medicaid. The following two charts compare spending levels under Chairman Ryan’s plan and President Obama’s recent budget (as scored by the Congressional Budget Office).
Figure 1 shows that spending rises more slowly over the next decade under Ryan’s plan than Obama’s plan. But spending rises substantially under both plans—between 2012 and 2021, spending rises 34 percent under Ryan and 55 percent under Obama.
Figure 2 compares Ryan’s and Obama’s proposed spending levels at the end of the 10-year budget window in 2021. The figure indicates where Ryan finds his budget savings. Going from the largest spending category to the smallest:
Ryan doesn’t provide specific Social Security cuts, instead proposing a budget mechanism to force Congress to take action on the program. It is disappointing that his plan doesn’t include common sense reforms such raising the retirement age.
Ryan finds modest Medicare savings in the short term, but the big savings occur beyond 10 years when his “premium support” reform is fully implemented. I would rather see Ryan’s Medicare reforms kick in sooner, which after all are designed to improve quality and efficiency in the health care system.
Ryan adopts Obama’s proposed defense (security) savings, but larger cuts are called for. After all, defense spending has doubled over the last decade, even excluding the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ryan finds modest Medicare savings in the short term, but the big savings occur beyond 10 years when his “premium support” reform is fully implemented. I would rather see Ryan’s Medicare reforms kick in sooner, which after all are designed to improve quality and efficiency in the health care system.
Ryan adopts Obama’s proposed defense (security) savings, but larger cuts are called for. After all, defense spending has doubled over the last decade, even excluding the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ryan includes modest cuts to nonsecurity discretionary spending. Larger cuts are needed, including termination of entire agencies. See DownsizingGovernment.org.
Ryan makes substantial cuts to other entitlements, such as farm subsidies. Bravo!
Ryan would turn Medicaid and food stamps into block grants. That is an excellent direction for reform, and it would allow Congress to steadily reduce spending and ultimately devolve these programs to the states.
Ryan would repeal the costly 2010 health care law. Bravo!
To summarize, Ryan’s budget plan would make crucial reforms to federal health care programs, and it would limit the size of the federal government over the long term. However, his plan would be improved by adopting more cuts and eliminations of agencies in short term, such as those proposed by Senator Rand Paul.
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