Thursday, May 8, 2014

Being Paul Ryan

By Jeff Simpson

Great column recently in Politico, diagnosing Paul Ryan(R-Wall St) Psychopathy:

For years, Ryan touted himself as an avid Ayn Rand disciple, until he didn’t in early 2012, even calling it “an urban legend” that he had anything serious to do with Rand at all. He then tried to present the latest iteration of his draconian soak-the-poor/shower the rich budget proposal as grounded in Catholic social teaching, rather than Rand’s fiercely anti-Christian philosophy, a claim that the conservative U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops soundly rejected, writing that his proposed budget failed to meet certain “moral criteria” by disproportionately cutting programs that “serve poor and vulnerable people.”

Now, seeking to put all memory of the “47 percent” campaign behind him, Ryan’s trying to take that reinvention to a whole new level. He’s still touting a budget that dramatically slashes spending on programs that benefit Americans of limited means — 69 percent of all cuts — including $137 billion from food stamps, 24 percent or $732 billion from Medicaid, and $125 billion from Pell Grants, among others — while giving millionaires an average tax cut of at least $200,000. Yet, at the same time, Ryan is trying to reinvent himself as someone who’s serious about fighting poverty, only from a conservative perspective.

Paul Rosenberg is even kind of enough to give Ryan some advice  on how to prove he is truly sincere:

1. Stop bad-mouthing the pope.
2. Stop bad-mouthing and disrespecting the poor.
3. Stop looking for guidance from racists, and stop hanging out with crazy people.
4. Stop ignoring — or worse yet, misrepresenting — what expert poverty researchers have found.
5. Stop ignoring the rest of the world.

2 comments:

  1. why isn't jake blog whoring over here today?

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  2. This year's Path to Prosperity is much the same as it was proposed in 2012. Same austerity measures, same war on the poor and middle class. Ryan's plan will be the same albatross on the GOP this November as it was in 2012. It was rejected then, and it will be again.
    Austerity schemes never worked anywhere in Europe, economically or socially. Ryan's big ideas are proven losers.

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