Abbreviated pundit roundup: Paul Ryan and Rand Paul, GOP brand ambassadors of failure

Eugene Robinson at The Washington Post looks at the overhyped, under-competent Paul Ryan and his flawed budget plan:

Voters were supposed to believe that Ryan was an apostle of fiscal rectitude. But his real aim wasn't to balance the budget. It was to starve the federal government of revenue. Big government, in his worldview, is inherently bad ' never mind that we live in an awfully big country.

Ryan and Mitt Romney offered their vision, President Obama offered his, and Americans made their choice. Rather emphatically.

Now Ryan, as chairman of the House Budget Committee, is coming back with an ostensibly new and improved version of the framework that voters rejected in November. Judging by the preview he offered Sunday, the new plan is even less grounded in reality than was the old one.

Jump below the fold for more analysis from opinion writers across the country.