Ryan's Plan Cuts $4.3 Trillion, Countered by $4.2 Trillion in Tax Cuts. Insane!!

Under the reality that the bottom 90 percent of all working Americans saw their incomes declined, while the rich saw their incomes rise by an average of a quarter million dollars each, Lawrence O'Donnell's guest from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Robert Greenstein has a whole lot of ammunition to the insanity of Paul Ryan's budget folly.

Ryan's plan cuts $4.3 trillion from the budget, but uses most of that savings and spends $4.2 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy. The CBO estimates the Ryan plan makes Medicare more expensive, with the additional cost paid out of pocket by seniors on a fixed income. It does save the government money, but doesn't lower health care costs. The human toll isn't even considered by Ryan, who believes self rationing is just part of living and dying, without a passing concern for the emotional and mental toll on families and friends.

O'Donnell makes a great point about what he calls "tax spending," tax cuts that take money out of the general fund, basically no different than irresponsible spending. Greenstein adds that "tax spending" amounts to $1 trillion a year, and costs more than Social Security and Medicare combined. He mentions means testing such things as the mortgage interest deduction for example.

And that doesn't even include the corporate tax gifts handed out each year.