Clipping blog

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• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Game-Changing Wednesday Edition
• We Don’t Have Time for Games…I’m Late for My Tee Time
• Draconian is the New Extremist
• Ryan’s Bold Plan is a Good Start

Clearing the Browser Tabs – Game-Changing Wednesday Edition Posted: 06 Apr 2011 03:10 AM PDT The rave reviews for Paul Ryan’s budget plan keep rolling in. James Pethokoukis, in the course of asking and answering three essential questions, calls it a game-changer and I find little room for disagreement. Troglopundit, King of All Motivators, has the poster that doubtless haunts the dreams of many a Democrat tonight. You can read Ryan’s remarks on his proposal to the American Enterprise Institute here, then check out this brief article for a touch of motivation. I spent the first half of the show last night on the “Path to Prosperity” and why it really is that big a deal. I also got into the incredibly irresponsible (if I may borrow a word from our President) manner in which the Democrats demagogued it today even though we all know darned well they have no clue what’s actually in it. I admit, I got just a tiny bit heated at one point. But it’s okay, I evened it out with some humor and introduced a brand new White House Press Secretary. The show post will be up a bit later this morning. And now, links! While Senator Lindsey Graham is crusading against free speech, the Saudi government is taking on a real threat: black magic. Why did the AARP spend so much money and time pushing Obamacare? Oh, they have a billion reasons, give or take a few. When junior hacks at the Atlantic attack! Like it or not, we’re all activists now and the Anchoress linked to a very good article on how to make the most of your arguments. Ed Driscoll found The Quote of the Millennium.

We Don’t Have Time for Games…I’m Late for My Tee Time Posted: 05 Apr 2011 01:16 PM PDT Presented without comment. President Barack Obama stepped out personally to address the impasse on budget negotiations and reject a Republican proposal for another temporary resolution unless it is to give Congress a few more days to pass a permanent deal. "We are now at a point where there is no excuse to extend this further," Mr. Obama said during a surprise appearance at the daily White House briefing. "I shouldn't have to oversee a process where Congress deals with last-year's budget when we only have six months left." The president, who has mostly stayed out of the budget debate until now, was visibly irritated over the impasse in negotiations. "There can be some negotiations about composition" of the cuts, Mr. Obama said, but he said he will not negotiate on ideological issues like abortion in the current budget discussions. "We don't have time for games," he said. "Not on this." [Emphasis mine] Did I say without comment? Yes, definitely no comment. I didn’t say anything about tweets, though, did I? It's 53° and partly cloudy in DC and Pres Obama is at Joint Base Andrews for a round of golf this afternoon with aides. April 3, 2011 12:57 via web Reply Retweet Favorite @markknoller Mark Knoller

Draconian is the New Extremist Posted: 05 Apr 2011 12:30 PM PDT As if on cue, the Democrats have come for Paul Ryan’s budget plan with pitchforks, torches, and a handy new word that sounds an awful lot like “extremist”. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) decried the 2012 budget proposal introduced by House Republicans Tuesday as "draconian." "I think that it completely lacks balance," he said of the plan unveiled by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). "He has dramatic cuts in taxes for the wealthiest among us and finances that by draconian cuts to those of us who are dependent on Medicaid and Medicare.” "It's draconian," added Conrad, who first ran for Congress on a pledge to reduce the federal deficit and has positioned himself as a fiscal hawk throughout his Senate career. Gee, could “draconian” be the new “extremist”? It looks like that’s the Demon Word of the Day on the Democrats’ morning e-mails. Let’s see what another Democratic Senator has to say. "Independent experts agree the House plan would make deep cuts to the Medicare benefits seniors count on," [Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max] Baucus said. "It would end Medicare as we know it and funnel Medicare dollars directly into private insurance companies' pockets. "Under the House plan, seniors' coverage would be cut drastically, benefits would no longer be guaranteed and seniors' costs would skyrocket," Baucus added. Huh…old people and children eating dog food and dying, untended, in the streets. Now where in the world have I read that particular criticism today? I’d say that Democrats really need to focus on their own failure. After all, they didn’t pass a budget last year and they’re having an awfully hard time even putting together a spending bill to keep the government open for a week. The last thing they need to do is demagogue Ryan’s work and draw attention to their own negligence. They ought to be praising him for doing the hard work they couldn’t be bothered to do when they were in charge. And, let’s face it, if Chuck Norris is on board with Ryan’s plan, surely the squawking parrots in the Democratic party can give it a little praise.

Ryan’s Bold Plan is a Good Start Posted: 05 Apr 2011 10:53 AM PDT I said in this morning’s Clearing the Browser Tabs post that Paul Ryan’s “Pay to Prosperity” budget plan (PDF link) was a humdinger and I wasn’t wrong. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it’s the boldest plan we’ve seen since the 1980s and certainly the most comprehensive in my lifetime. I’m not just blowing smoke here. Ryan’s plan not only tackles the debt problem (albeit not as quickly as it could), but also tries to fix Medicare and our very real economic growth problem, and it pushes Congress and the President to the table to fix Social Security. It is a real document that looks at real problems in a responsible and grown-up fashion. That means, of course, that the Democrats can not let it pass. Nancy Pelosi could barely wait until the end of Ryan’s press conference before she hit Twitter with the same old hoary talking points about Republican cruelty to children and old people. Jennifer Rubin has done us the favor of debunking the ten most witless arguments you’ll likely hear against the plan (Pelosi’s talking points fit nicely into Numbers 2 and 9). Smitty also outlines a set of reasons why we can’t truly solve the debt problem unless we tackle the two major entitlement programs now. I have a lot more to say about Ryan’s plan, including why it should only be the beginning of the spending cuts, but you’ll have to listen to The Delivery tonight (or grab the podcast when it comes out either Wednesday or Thursday) to hear them all. I’ll give you a little bit now. It’s important that we start thinking of our spending in relation to how much we take in, which is a fairly predictable amount of how much the country produces each year (a little over 19 percent of GDP). If we shift our frame of thinking from dollars to percentages, we can put a real dent in the debt far sooner than even Ryan believes we can by taking spending below that 19 percent figure. Ryan’s plan takes spending to 20 percent of GDP for about a decade, then down to 15 percent. That’s certainly better than the Obama administration’s 23 percent or the recent debt commission’s 21 percent (PDF link), but it’s still a little bit too high because with current revenues well below 19 percent, it means we’ll still have to run deficits for a few more years. I don’t think we need to move that slowly. This post at Ace’s place puts some more numbers to the idea and I’ll add a few of my own, including how steady that 19 percent really is, so be sure to listen! UPDATE: There is something very important I forgot to mention about Ryan’s plan: It doesn’t actually cut spending. It does slow the rate of increase dramatically (and you see that in the places where the plan compares itself to the President’s budget) but, so far as I can see, it doesn’t require we spend less in any year than we did the year before. At best, it holds spending at a steady rate. Keep that in mind when Democrats talk about “extreme” spending cuts or old people eating dog food.

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