The “savings” from Congressman Ryan’s Medicare proposal and his unspecified cuts in everything else are then almost completely “invested” in tax cuts whose benefits flow hugely and disproportionately to upper income earners. As Alan Blinder showed in the Wall Street Journal Monday, a true count of the results of Congressman Ryan’s efforts is as follows: $4.2 trillion in tax cuts and $4.3 trillion in spending cuts. So Congressman Ryan seems willing to wreck the safety net, our society, and maybe the economy for a net $100 billion in deficit reduction. Moreover, Congressman Ryan’s own forecast of the results of his proposal has government declining as a percent of GDP to below where it was in 1950.

Where do they get these guys who either believe this stuff, or don’t believe it but can say it with a straight face? I’m a proud deficit hawk, but I think Congressman Ryan’s “solution” is worse for the country than the deficit problem itself.