Paul Ryan just doesn't do a very good job. The text always shimmers on the surface, but the exam book never gets more than a C-. And he cheats.
Example: "All of his budgetary bluff and bluster, which he fails to back up with actual numbers and actual choices, while simultaneously insisting that his proposals be recognized as courageous and unusually serious — no one else dares attempt such a thing."
That's from Jonathan Bernstein at WaPo who goes on to report that Ryan was all over the media all weekend with his grand idea while claiming that "it’s not his job to say which tax deductions he wants to end in order to pay for lower rates under his tax reform proposal." Uh, Congressman Ryan, isn't that your job, given what you're proposing?
The bigger point here is that Ryan is offering a highly idiosyncratic version of the division of Congressional labor. He’s right about one thing: Normally, it’s reasonable that Ways and Means fill in the details of tax legislation, and that Budget only give broad outlines of general goals. But when it comes to cutting tax rates, Ryan is not proposing broad outlines. He’s dictating two very specific tax rates, 10% and 25%.
So Ryan wants it both ways: He is proposing specific cuts in tax rates, in order to be greeted as serious and courageous about deficit reduction. But he is not explaining how he would pay for them, and he won’t list any of the large chunks of government that would have to be shut down to make his proposal work, which shows that ... he’s not at all serious and courageous about deficit reduction. ...WaPo
What Ryan offers every time is kidstuff accompanied by a truckload of arrogance -- "I'll write the headlines, guys. You do the math and you take the political consequences."
