Paul Ryan is thirsty for austerity Politico's Jake Sherman captures this bit of teeth-gnashing from Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) about the GOP's plan to deliver a budget that will achieve balance by 2023 (my emphasis):
'We are saying a 10-year balance ' that's tougher than the last Ryan budget,' said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a former Budget Committee member and currently an Appropriations cardinal. 'There could be a significant number of Republicans that say, 'I'm not going there because it would be too dramatic.' I have said to my constituents, nobody is talking about changing Social Security and Medicare if you're 55 years or over.' I've been selling it for three or four years that way. So have many other members. Well, to balance in 10, that 55 years is going to move up to 58, 59, 60. It makes us look like we're going back on what we were telling people when we were trying to sell this.'
I actually wouldn't be surprised if Ryan comes up with a way to cloak these cuts beneath a veil of plausible deniability'the mother of all magic asterisks, if you will. Clearly, Ryan is sufficiently dishonest to do just that. But if his budget is honest, Simpson's concern is well-founded, because that's exactly what it will contain. And if Democrats aren't able to to recapture the House after the GOP proposes these sorts of cuts for people at or near retirement age, they should just get out of politics, because you really can't imagine a bigger political gift.
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