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It must be springtime since all of the Village is once again excitedly poring over the Republican budget plan. As usual they are searching for reasons to praise its responsible agenda of slashing benefits for poor , old and sick people in order that we all be forced totake our medicineand recognize thatwe are all going to have to sacrifice.(Of course the millionaire celebrities who are saying wont feel any pain, but you can be sure they haveyourbest interests at heart.)

In years past, the star of the show was Very Serious Person, Paul Ryan, the Republican budgetsavantwhoeveryone agreed was so spectacularly serious that even though his budget numbers never added up, he was still worthy of deep respect and rapt attention just because he was so darned serious.This piece by William Saletanfrom 2012 perfectly illustrates the phenomenon:

Ryan is a real fiscal conservative. He isnt just another Tea-Party ideologue spouting dogma about less government and the magic of free enterprise. He has actually crunched the numbers and laid out long-term budget proposals.

Paul Krugman was appropriatelygobsmacked:

Look, Ryan hasnt crunched the numbers; he has just scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense. He asserts that he can cut taxes without net loss of revenue by closing unspecified loopholes; he asserts that he can cut discretionary spending to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge, without saying how; he asserts that he can convert Medicare to a voucher system, with much lower spending than now projected, without even a hint of how this is supposed to work. This is just a fantasy, not a serious policy proposal. So why does Saletan believe otherwise? Has he crunched the numbers himself? Of course not. What hes doing and what the whole Beltway media crowd has done is to slot Ryan into a role someone is supposed to be playing in their political play, that of the thoughtful, serious conservative wonk. In reality, Ryan is nothing like that; hes a hard-core conservative, with a voting record as far right as Michelle Bachmans, who has shown no competence at all on the numbers thing.

What Ryan is good at is exploiting the willful gullibility of the Beltway media, using a soft-focus style to play into their desire to have a conservative wonk they can say nice things about. And apparently the trick still works.

Indeed it did. But it turns out that it wasnt only particular to the Very Serious Ryan, with whom they did have a Very Serious love affair. For years, no matter how tragically misguided the proposed tax cuts for the rich and benefits cuts for the poor and whatever hare-brained reforms he pretended to propose the commentariat acted as if the yearly Republican budget had been delivered directly from Mt Sinai. This year proves that they will greeteverybraindead, extremist GOP budget with similar excitement regardless of Ryans involvement. The 2015 Budget Committee proposal under the new chairman Tom Price, for instance, has garnered tremendous coverage even as its acknowledged by everyone that it has as much chance of passing as a ban on flying American flags at political events.

After much hemming and hawing and jockeying between the defense hawks and the fiscal hawks with the Tea Party vultures pacing around with a ravenous look in their eyes, the House GOP budget committee finally managed to pass a document. Passing the budget in the full House and then coming together with the Senate in reconciliation is a long shot to say the least, despite the fact that they arepromising to lard the reconciliation processwith as many offensive proposals as they can muster. It would be entertaining if it werent such a stale and boring story line by now. But the beltway wags cant stop themselves from writing breathless story after breathless story even as they acknowledge that the budget features draconian cuts to necessary services, has little chance of passage and no chance of being signed by the president. The fact that the numbers never add up is barely mentioned.

Meanwhile, every year the House Progressive Caucus releases what they entitleThe Peoples Budget, with numbers that add up, sensible deficit reduction along with protection for the most vulnerable paid for by higher taxes on the wealthiest among us. Katrina vanden Heuvaldescribed it this way in the Washington Post:

On the investment side, the CPC expands investments in areas vital to our future. It would rebuild America, modernizing our outmoded infrastructure. It would invest to lead the green industrial revolution that is already forging markets and creating jobs across the globe.

See the original post here:
Tea Partys absurd advantage: Why Americas budget talk is so messed up