Krugman On GOP Budget: “Ridiculous And Heartless”; And Why Did Heritage Scrub Ryan’s Numbers?

Paul Krugman correctly states that the GOP budget plan is simultaneously “ridiculous and heartless.” And we are back to voodoo economics as Republicans make the false claim that tax cuts pay for themselves. A portion of the proposal dealing with the unemployment rate put out by Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (pictured) and backed by the Heritage Foundation was erased from the Heritage website.

Specifically, the Ryan proposal trumpets the results of an economic projection from the Heritage Foundation, which claims that the plan’s tax cuts would set off a gigantic boom. Indeed, the foundation initially predicted that the G.O.P. plan would bring the unemployment rate down to 2.8 percent — a number we haven’t achieved since the Korean War. After widespread jeering, the unemployment projection vanished from the Heritage Foundation’s Web site, but voodoo still permeates the rest of the analysis.

The Congressional Budget Office finds that much of the spending cuts would pay for tax cuts, not deficit reduction. And the plan to abolish Medicare and replace it with private vouchers won’t cover rising health costs, leaving an aging population with inadequate health care.

…as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, of the $4 trillion in spending cuts he proposes over the next decade, two-thirds involve cutting programs that mainly serve low-income Americans. And by repealing last year’s health reform, without any replacement, the plan would also deprive an estimated 34 million nonelderly Americans of health insurance.

What Ryan and his GOP cohorts want to do hurts seniors and non-seniors. It’s cruel. And it’s ridiculous.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.