GOP Rep. Paul Ryan: the 'FlimFlam man'

For the second time in two weeks, Paul Krugman dismantles Paul Ryan for having his head where no one who can add should ever go. The "audacity of dopes" he calls it:

One depressing aspect of American politics is the susceptibility of the political and media establishment to charlatans. You might have thought, given past experience, that D.C. insiders would be on their guard against conservatives with grandiose plans. But no: as long as someone on the right claims to have bold new proposals, he’s hailed as an innovative thinker. And nobody checks his arithmetic.

Which brings me to the innovative thinker du jour: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. . . . He’s often described with phrases like “intellectually audacious.”

But it’s the audacity of dopes.

What's so bad about Mr. Ryan's proposals? Paul Krugman again (my emphasis):

The Tax Policy Center finds that the Ryan plan would cut taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population in half, giving them 117 percent of the plan’s total tax cuts. That’s not a misprint. Even as it slashed taxes at the top, the plan would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population.

Then Krugman, who never surprises with his surprise, asks why in God's sweet earth does everyone listen to smart-seeming idiots like the representative from Wisconsin's cheese country? (Ryan's district includes the south part of Milwaukee, Racine, and farm country west to Janesville; but he must be smart because that's just north of Illinois.)

So why have so many in Washington, especially in the news media, been taken in by this flimflam?

Two words, Mr. Krugman: Movement Conservatives. The oh-so-collegial economists you don't understand; the face-lift news-blondes you can't wrap your mind around; the faux-lib bureaucrats who just don't get it, even though this time your patient explanations made even more sense than before.

It's a war, Professor. They brought rifles and civilian uniforms; you brought a picnic basket and lecture notes.

And Paul Ryan? He's on the Obama–Peterson Catfood Commission, of course. Chris Van Hollen:

It speaks volumes about the GOP agenda for America that the three House Republican members named to the Deficit Commission strongly support privatizing Social Security and all voted last year to dismantle Medicare as we know it.

Nancy Pelosi has guaranteed a House vote on the Commission's recommendations. It's gonna happen; thanks, Nancy, for doing your part.

It makes you wonder — at what point do our betters just not need us any more? (There's actually an answer, folks; people have been working on that one. Stay tuned.)

GP