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Politico reported on how the GOP has retreated from the Ryan plan because of the backlash that it has encountered from its own base that especially likes Medicare just the way it is. Krugman thinks that Ryan may become a martyr among the Washington punditry. They viewed his plan as a bold attempt to solve our long term fiscal problems.
What I liked about the Ryan plan was that it laid out the value system of the GOP for everyone to observe. In that sense it was a bold plan because politicians rarely take such risks. Krugman describes the Ryan plan very well. He called it right wing wish list on steroids: sharp tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, savage cuts in aid for the poor and a gratuitous privatization of Medicare. To make matters worse, it is also technically incompetent. It does not reduce the national debt. The public has rejected the Ryan plan, but he may have been influenced by the love affair of the punditry, and by encouragement from those on the far right who blessed his plan. After all, how does an obscure representative from Wisconsin get to appear on all of the Sunday talking head shows and get his picture on the cover of all of the national weekly magazines? Incompetence sells as long as it of the right kind. I also think that is an example of GOP hubris. Many in the GOP have been drinking too much tea. They have come to believe that the time is right to commit to the far right agenda and they have over-reached. The real America is not in South Carolina or other third world states.
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