Bizarre, Congress, Politics

Rep. Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity (For the Wealthy)”

-Submitted by David Durmm (Nal), Guest Blogger

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Although Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) had initially received praise for his budget proposal, upon more careful analysis, many, like Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, have found it to be Ludicrous and Cruel. A principal feature of his budget is tax cuts for the wealthy, from 35 percent to 25 percent. But not to worry, remember that tax cuts magically pay for themselves. Phase 1, cut taxes for the wealthy. Phase 2, ? Phase 3, prosperity.

Rep. Ryan’s budget relies on economic forecasts provided by the Heritage Foundation showing an unemployment rate of 2.8% by 2021. This seems like déjà vu all over again.

The Heritage Foundation also predicted massive economic gains from President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. The chart below show the Heritage predictions for employment in blue and the actual numbers in red.

The 2.8% prediction was so ludicrous and subject to so much ridicule, the figure vanished from the Heritage Foundation’s web site. Yet it is the Heritage Foundation’s model that Rep. Ryan cites as the analytical basis for his claims of job growth.

Ryan has been down this road before. In his “Roadmap For America’s Future”, Ryan proposed massive tax cuts for the rich. In a report from the Tax Policy Center, their analysis showed “[f]ederal revenues under the Roadmap would decline substantially as a percentage of GDP.”

To make up for lost federal revenues, tax increases for the middle class, through tax bracket “consolidation,” would be unavoidable.

H/T: Center for American Progress, Michael Linden, Matthew Yglesias.

68 thoughts on “Rep. Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity (For the Wealthy)””

  1. Damn, where do I sign up to be wealthy…. Is this another government handout….at the expense of the real working class?

  2. eniobob

    “what happen to the word **revenue** ?”

    Do you think that pot should be legal / semi-legal and if so, who do you think should make the profits?

  3. US Courts could increase employment by expanding staff and services. If that were to result in a lower incarceration rate, or other “happy endings”, it could pay for itself.

    There are a lot of unemployed people with a lot of skills and knowledge that could be useful to refining the end outcome of court processes.

  4. Great post Nal! Taibbi hit the nail on the head. This so called budget is merely a blueprint for more gifts to the wealthy and corporations.

  5. I have been reading Matt Taibbi for years. His insight on politics and the personality types who people that landscape is always spot on and time has proven him far more right than wrong. He nailed Ryan perfectly.

    As Buddha said: “The smell of repackaged trickle-down economics” …

    As to Taibbi’s bona fides …. a good education is a plus as long as one doesn’t aspire to leadership within the republican party.

  6. “Liberal Guy
    1, April 9, 2011 at 10:53 am
    Otteray Scribe:

    “Taibbi grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburbs. He attended Concord Academy and Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, then spent a year abroad at Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University. His father is Mike Taibbi, an NBC television reporter.”

    I wouldnt take the word of someone who never would work at Applebees. He’s just another rich punk progressive who makes a living pandering to other punks”

    AND:

    “But the icing on the cake comes when a guy like David Brooks – like me a coddled, overcompensated media yuppie whose idea of sacrifice is raking one’s own leaves – comes out and calls Paul Ryan courageous for having the guts to ask seniors to cut back on their health care in order to pay for our tax breaks.”

    It seems as if he is acknowledgeing his background but also knows what is going on and not afraid to step up to the plate.

  7. LG, your point is? Some people have brains that are wired up to deal with ambiguity, complexity and compassion for those less well off. Those folks understand basic economics and human nature. Matt Taibbi writes with a scathing pen about the pretty boys the GOP trots out to argue for robbing the poor to give to the rich.

    Being from a well do do family has absolutely zero to do with whether one is capable of compassion. Look at Gandhi and FDR. They were the polar opposites of John of Orange and the Koch crime family. Personally, I think he nailed the pretty boys in his opening paragraph, capturing their style and personality quite well.

  8. Ahhhh! The smell of repackaged trickle-down economics in the morning smells just like . . . a stale unflushed urinal.

    Much like Congress.

  9. Otteray Scribe:

    “Taibbi grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburbs. He attended Concord Academy and Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, then spent a year abroad at Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University. His father is Mike Taibbi, an NBC television reporter.”

    I wouldnt take the word of someone who never would work at Applebees. He’s just another rich punk progressive who makes a living pandering to other punks.

  10. Agree with Krugman. Libertarians say the country is bankrupt, but the last treasury auction did not fail. It went quite well.

  14. Thanks Matt:

    “eniobob
    1, April 7, 2011 at 3:30 pm
    SL:

    What makes it funny,everyone on the right when asked about Ryans plan since he announced it,all have said in so many ways but meaning the same thing”its a start” WHAT??????”

    Kinda makes my point:

    “But the icing on the cake comes when a guy like David Brooks – like me a coddled, overcompensated media yuppie whose idea of sacrifice is raking one’s own leaves – comes out and calls Paul Ryan courageous for having the guts to ask seniors to cut back on their health care in order to pay for our tax breaks.”

    “We need to increase revenue,”

    frank, touche!!,my post from another thread.

    “eniobob
    1, April 7, 2011 at 5:23 pm
    Jim:

    I have a question for you,since all the people on the right keep talking about cutting,cutting,cutting what happen to the word **revenue** ?

    If I’m not mistaken more revenue would help bring down debt,I think.

    Oh tha’ts right they are more interested in giving away the store.”

  16. No, we are not bankrupt but we will be if people continue to pretend we can cut taxes for the rich and spending for everything but more war. We need to increase revenue, there are two ways to do this that will work. First, remove all the Bush tax cuts, returning to the low rates of the Clinton years. That actually ends more than 1/2 the deficit. Second, spend money on projects that will create jobs – infrastructure, high tech research. These jobs will pay taxes & create more jobs that also pay taxes.

    Then we need to find a way to stop the bleeding of jobs to third-world countries.

    Finally get the fuck out of Iraq and Afghanistan. This coupled with ending the Bush tax cuts brings the budget almost into balance.

  17. I posted this gem from Matt Taibbi last night in one of the long threads, but for those who did not see it, it is worth repeating. As I said last evening, Matt Taibbi writes as though he uses a razor blade for a pen. Here is a teaser from his Rolling Stone column (link below):

    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.

    The whole article is worth a read:

    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

  18. Here’s another reality check. This is a chart of the unemployment rate comparing the current situation to prior recessions.

    The situation we are now in is untenable, and even recovery to full employment will not solve the fact that our government is now forced to inflate our way out of a $16,000 billion debt. We are bankrupt.

  19. Rachel Maddow Tears Into Beltway Media For Paul Ryan Budget Coverage (VIDEO)
    First Posted: 04/ 7/11 01:30 PM ET Updated: 04/ 7/11 06:56 PM ET

    Rachel Maddow lit into the media for what she saw as their fawning coverage of Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal.

    Speaking on her Wednesday show, Maddow said that Ryan’s proposal was dangerous and full of shoddy math–but that the media was too interested in his physical fitness and supposed “seriousness” to look critically at the plan.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/07/rachel-maddow-beltway-media-paul-ryan_n_846218.html

    A 2fer:

    Lawrence O’Donnell Tears Up While Emotionally Defending Planned Parenthood In Government Shutdown Fight (VIDEO)

    Lawrence O’Donnell mounted a highly emotional and personal defense of Planned Parenthood on his Friday show. Until a government shutdown was narrowly averted on Friday night, the organization’s federal funding had been the last major obstacle to a budget deal between Republicans and Democrats.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/lawrence-odonnell-tears-planned-parenthood-government-shutdown_n_846953.html

  20. So the federal budget is about 3830 billion.

    And the federal deficit on this spending is about 1560 billion, meaning that we borrow about 40 cents of every dollar we spend.

    The government had to near shutdown in order to cut a grand total of 38 billion, less than 1%, from the 3830 in spending?!

    We are doomed.

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