I happened to run across this article today about Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R), Palm Desert, and her "on the fence" position regarding Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s 10 year budget plan. If her position is indicative of the GOP House Caucus, we’re in big trouble already.
First of all, I cannot imagine anyone being undecided about the Ryan budget on the grounds that it goes too far. It actually doesn’t go anywhere close to where we need to go in terms of deficit and debt reduction. Ryan compares his plan’s 10 year benchmark with Barack Obama’s, and claims some great victory for only increasing spending $4 trillion instead of the $10 trillion proposed by Obama. This is conservative?
For a Republican member to actually believe the Ryan budget goes too far is evidence of a fundamental lack of understanding of basic economics and mathamatics, as well as international finance, and perhaps even politics.
First of all, we’ve raised the baseline for federal spending over $1 trillion annually since 2008. Anyone notice any difference in anything? Nope. Just more borrowing. The fatal flaws in the Ryan plan include:
1. 31% increase in spending;
2. Binding future Congresses to follow his plan is impossible
3. Adds trillions to the deficit
4. Assumes foreign countries will continue to increase their ownership in our country
5. Forgets this reality – the GOP will be savaged for any proposal to slow the proposed growth in spending – so we might as well actually reduce spending if we’re going to get beat up about it.
Congresswoman Bono Mack needs to understand that if she can’t even stomach a phony plan like Paul Ryan’s, she’s bound to have a primary challenge and probably should. I am continually amazed at the utter lack of urgency on the part of Congress to deal with our debt crisis. Timidity is not an option. Its time for bold confrontation.