The GOP's goofy math

Paul Ryan: Radical, or fraud?

By Jonathan Bernstein, WashPost

Today’s big read is Ryan Lizza’s profile of Paul Ryan in the New Yorker. Here’s the key paragraph, in which Ryan rejects claims that he wants to slash government in a radical way:

When I pointed out to Ryan that government spending programs were at the heart of his home town’s recovery, he didn’t disagree. But he insisted that he has been misunderstood. “Obama is trying to paint us as a caricature,” he said. “As if we’re some bizarre individualists who are hardcore libertarians. It’s a false dichotomy and intellectually lazy.” He added, “Of course we believe in government. We think government should do what it does really well, but that it has limits, and obviously within those limits are things like infrastructure, interstate highways, and airports.” But independent assessments make clear that Ryan’s budget plan, in order to achieve its goals, would drastically reduce the parts of the budget that fund exactly the kinds of projects and research now helping Janesville.

“As if we’re some bizarre individualists who are hardcore libertarians”? As Obi-Wan told Anakin: You have done that yourself.

(More here.)