Ryan is not infallible

Whether you like his plan or not, can we all agree on one thing? Paul Ryan does not walk on water. But you’d never know that from the media adulation that’s smothered him ever since he announced his deficit-reduction plan last week.

You know Ryan. He’s the guy with the “jet black hair and a touch of Eagle Scout to him,” as Time magazine gushes. He’s the congressman from Wisconsin with “the piercing blue eyes, love for heavy metal on his iPod and a reputation among Democrats, including President Obama, as a Republican who has put forward budget ideas that are thoughtful and serious,” babbles The New York Times. And he’s put forth a budget plan, ejaculates columnist David Brooks, that is “the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes.”

{mosads}Oh, give me a break. Get a hotel room!

Let’s be honest. I’ve never gazed into Paul Ryan’s “piercing blue eyes,” but I’ve studied his budget plan. There’s nothing bold, comprehensive, courageous or even original about it. It’s nothing but a collection of all the recycled, right-wing, rejected Republican policies of the last 50 years, rolled into one document.

Here’s what Ryan’s plan would do. For a long time, Republicans have wanted to get rid of Medicare — even though it’s the single most effective government program. Ryan does it. Shuts down Medicare as we know it and forces seniors to go shopping for the best healthcare they can get from private insurance companies.

He’d shut down Medicaid, too, by turning the whole program over to states — and we all know how flush with cash they are. He would also, of course, repeal Obama’s healthcare reform plan, even though the Congressional Budget Office projects that repeal would actually add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade. Two-thirds of Ryan’s cuts, in fact, come from programs serving the middle class and the poor — while he proposes no cuts at all in the massive Pentagon budget. 

As for new sources of revenue, there aren’t any. Ryan pretends we can get rid of the deficit by budget cuts alone. In fact, he would slash revenues by offering the wealthiest Americans yet another tax cut, and lowering the tax rate for corporations, even though most of them don’t pay their fair share today, if they pay any taxes at all.

But the biggest secret about Ryan’s plan is that, when it comes to balancing the deficit, it’s a total con job. According to the Republican Study Committee, his scheme would not balance the budget — until 2050! And getting from here to there would require raising the debt ceiling multiple times.

With President Obama’s own roadmap for cutting the deficit now on the table, it’s time for the media to stop focusing on Paul Ryan’s blue eyes — and start exposing the cruel realities of his plan.

Bill Press is host of the nationally syndicated “Bill Press Show.”