Ryan's private savings

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Ryan's Private Savings - Path to Prosperity
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Why can't Democrats do this? You see how Jon Stewart takes Paul Ryan's graph and shows why we're facing such a tremendous debt burden? It's not because of too much spending. It's because of the Republicans' own insistence on cutting taxes for the very wealthiest among us.

Would returning tax rates to where they were before the recent, and completely disastrous, Bush administration eliminate all debt? No, but it clearly makes the problem more manageable.

I said "clearly," and I mean it. Jon Stewart uses Ryan's own graph to clearly demonstrate his point. So why can't Democrats be this clear? I'm beginning to wonder how they ever get elected at all, as inept at politics as they seem to be.

But I'd like to point out something else about Ryan's graph, something that he's careful not to show very clearly. Ryan's plan - even using his own figures - shows the deficit going up. Then - eventually - it's supposed to go back down again.

This is because his own proposals would immediately increase the deficit, with continued large tax cuts for the rich. Later, far down the road, he assumes that "trickle-down" economics will actually work this time. And he assumes that more difficult decisions will be made in the future.

Yes, the pain is put off. Republicans get their tax cuts for the rich immediately. Then you just have to trust them that all these benefits, which will supposedly decrease the deficit, will actually happen. But current Republican politicians won't have to worry about that. If it doesn't happen, it will be someone else's problem by then (just as the current economic collapse is Obama's problem, not Bush's).

So what are the chances of it all working out like this? Come on, were you born yesterday? Throughout the Bush administration, Republicans also promised us that tax cuts for the rich would magically increase revenue and decrease the deficit. Remember "voodoo economics"? How did that actually work out? (They also promised us that the Iraq War would "pay for itself." How did that work out, then?)

That's the thing about political promises. Politicians will promise us anything in the future, in order to get what they want today. Well, why not? By then, it will be someone else's problem. And they know that Americans have hopelessly short memories, anyway. (Just the fact that Republicans are riding high again - with the same failed policies they embraced during the Bush years - is a clear demonstration of that.)

Again, why can't Democrats capitalize even on political slam-dunks? (I'm still mad at their behavior last fall, when given a similar slam-dunk.) Paul Ryan has proposed ending Medicare within ten years. Are Democrats so inept that they can't make that clear to the American people? Yes, I'm afraid they are.

Heck, Jon Stewart has just shown them how to take Ryan's own graph and use it as ammunition against him. Will they follow his lead? Don't bet on it. Democrats seem to be absolutely hopeless at politics - and in this respect, President Obama is a typical Democrat.

Yes, candidate Obama was a great politician. But President Obama has demonstrated that he's at least as hopeless a politician as most Democrats. Amazing, isn't it? His lack of leadership and his complete ineptitude at politics have been very, very disappointing.

I want candidate Obama back again. (Well, as long as I'm wishing, maybe I should wish for Democrats to develop a spine. Heh, heh. Dream on, huh?)