‘Seriously’ Embarrassing

On Monday and Tuesday, politicians and commentators were practically falling over themselves to praise Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget proposal as “serious” and “courageous”, even in cases where they disagreed with it on policy terms. Whatever you think of his policy positions, the argument went, give the man credit for telling it like it is and grappling with the hard numbers. But after a day or two of looking at the numbers, it turns out a lot of his assumptions and predictions are completely preposterous. Not just in the sense of the normal padding and optimistic assumptions that most budgets include. But really preposterous. Like 2.8% unemployment? Really curious what all the Ryan-o-philes are going to say about these numbers. Check out our report. Really must read.