"Straight Shooting" Ryan Stimulus Hypocrite.

In an ongoing series featuring high profile stimulus hypocrites, Rachel Maddow gets to our own Rep. Paul Ryan, proving just how Republicans are enjoying having it both ways. If it wasn't for Maddow's series, other media sources including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, would not have noticed the obvious.

Video is here, despite black screen, so click on play.


Update on Ryan's Road Map to a Dickensian American Future:

Christian Science Monitor: We raised two specific issues. The first was that Ryan's tax proposals are unlikely to generate enough revenue to accomplish his goals, even after he makes major reductions in spending. The second was that, rather than fully analyzing Ryan's Plan, the Congressional Budget Office, at the congressman's request, scored only the spending provisions and simply assumed the tax portion would raise the revenue Ryan claimed.

Taxpolicycenter:org: Word is getting around that CBO has blessed a major budget reform plan proposed by Ryan as, in the words of National Review Online, “a roadmap to solvency.” It isn’t true. All this confusion is due to a letter written on Jan. 27 from CBO director Doug Elmendorf to Ryan. CBO assumed this wonderful outcome would occur only if the revenue portion of Ryan’s plan generated 19 percent of GDP in taxes. And there is not the slightest evidence that would happen. Ryan’s staff asked CBO to ignore it … CBO simply assumed, as the lawmaker requested, that it would generate revenues of 19 percent of GDP.

In fairness, the CBO letter is filled with … disclaimers. In the second paragraph, it says, “This analysis does not represent a cost estimate for this legislation.” It couldn’t be more clear … TPC figured that scheme would reduce tax revenues by between $6 trillion and $8 trillion over 10 years. Unless Ryan can achieve unrealistically large cuts in spending as well, this is not exactly a roadmap to solvency in my book.