An Unserious Man
 
By Paul Krugman
 
NY Times Op-Ed
August 20, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/opinion/krugman-an-unserious-man.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120820

Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate led to
a wave of pundit accolades. Now, declared writer after
writer, we’re going to have a real debate about the nation’s
fiscal future. This was predictable: never mind the Tea
Party, Mr. Ryan’s true constituency is the commentariat,
which years ago decided that he was the Honest, Serious
Conservative, whose proposals deserve respect even if you
don’t like him.

But he isn’t and they don’t. Ryanomics is and always has been
 a con game, although to be fair, it has become even more of
 a con since Mr. Ryan joined the ticket. Let’s talk about
 what’s actually in the Ryan plan, and let’s distinguish in
 particular between actual, specific policy proposals and
 unsupported assertions. To focus things a bit more, let’s
 talk - as most budget discussions do - about what’s supposed
 to happen over the next 10 years.

On the tax side, Mr. Ryan proposes big cuts in tax rates on
top income brackets and corporations. He has tried to dodge
the normal process in which tax proposals are "scored" by
independent auditors, but the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center
has done the math, and the revenue loss from these cuts comes
to $4.3 trillion over the next decade.

On the spending side, Mr. Ryan proposes huge cuts in
Medicaid, turning it over to the states while sharply
reducing funding relative to projections under current
policy. That saves around $800 billion. He proposes similar
harsh cuts in food stamps, saving a further $130 billion or
so, plus a grab-bag of other cuts, such as reduced aid to
college students. Let’s be generous and say that all these
cuts would save $1 trillion.

On top of this, Mr. Ryan includes the $716 billion in
Medicare savings that are part of Obamacare, even though he
wants to scrap everything else in that act. Despite this, Mr.
Ryan has now joined Mr. Romney in denouncing President Obama
for "cutting Medicare"; more on that in a minute.

So if we add up Mr. Ryan’s specific proposals, we have $4.3
trillion in tax cuts, partially offset by around $1.7
trillion in spending cuts - with the tax cuts, surprise,
disproportionately benefiting the top 1 percent, while the
spending cuts would primarily come at the expense of low-
income families. Over all, the effect would be to increase
the deficit by around two and a half trillion dollars.

Yet Mr. Ryan claims to be a deficit hawk. What’s the basis
for that claim?

To read more, go to

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/opinion/krugman-an-unserious-man.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120820

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