Paul Ryan Hits It on the Head

by evanmcmurry

Apparently Paul Ryan now thinks sudden and harsh austerity measures are disruptive and traumatic to the economy. I’m sure he’s re-writing his past two budgets as we speak.

But here’s the key line that Ryan slips in. Listing previous examples of presidents negotiating over the debt ceiling, he includes:

Two years ago, Mr. Obama signed the Budget Control Act, which swapped spending cuts for a debt-ceiling hike.

Ha! So the “negotiating” Obama did during the debt ceiling debacle two years ago—at gunpoint—is now being used as a precedent to force him to “negotiate” now—at gunpoint. That’s exactly why Obama’s not negotiating now.

The Coming Debt Ceiling Hostage Negotiation Meltdown Spectacular (Now With Abortions!)

by evanmcmurry

Hey, remember how the deficit is shrinking at an unexpectedly rapid rate, thus pushing any debt crisis, even imaginary ones, far into the future? Ya don’t? You must be a House Republican:

Even though the deficit is plunging at an extraordinarily fast rate, and saving the Republic from the supposed imminent threat of the debt crisis was the entire rationale for using the novel and dangerous tactic of holding the debt ceiling hostage, absolutely nobody within the House Republican caucus is even considering just lifting the debt ceiling. Everybody agrees they must demand a new hostage.

Relevant hostages, right?

The proposed demands change from tax reform to spending cuts to delaying Obamacare to the Keystone pipeline to the Paul Ryan budget to banning certain types of abortion.

I can’t wait to hear the explanation of how abortions are causing the deficit problem we don’t have.

As Chait goes on to point out, the real enemy of this stunt is the business community, which has put the kabosh on the hostage strategy before, and will again if need be. In the meantime, the House will do nothing but further tarnish the GOP brand at a time when the party is desperately trying to reinvent itself as not insane. Oh, and nothing will be done for the un- and underemployed, but you already knew that.

Look what Romney has brought mainstream with his pick of Ryan

by pdxblake

Back when the debt ceiling was the number one debate in Washington, there was a push by many in the Republican Party to push the US government into default for the first time ever and guess who joined them:

Establishment Republicans including Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor who announced his presidential candidacy last month, are backing a short-term default if it leads to deep, immediate spending cuts.

Jeff Sessions and Paul Ryan, the top Republicans on the Senate and House Budget Committees, have also said failure to raise the debt limit would not trigger immediate catastrophe.

Of course, it didn’t happen with the Stupor Committee and the Sequester that is coming at the end of the year, but the Vice Presidential nominee from a major political party (Paul Ryan) has recently been in favor of defaulting on the US debt in order to score a political victory and slash spending and kill popular social programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  If Romney is elected, this person would be within a heartbeat of the presidency (as they like to say).

For anyone who wants to have a ‘serious’ or ‘adult’ discussion about the future trajectory of fiscal policy in this country, it should be clear that the top priority should be defeating Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.  Supporting them is supporting a cutthroat political strategy where it is perfectly acceptable (for them) to hold the nation’s unblemished record of paying its debt on time and in full hostage and openly state that they are willing to kill the hostage.  That is not a ‘serious’ approach to fiscal policy.  It is insanity.