The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

It’s Time To Call The Bluff On Progressivism

Posted on | August 10, 2010 | 18 Comments

by Smitty

Megan McArdle offers an outstanding play-by-play of the dust-up between Wisconsin’s Wonkish Wunderkind and Krugman.

Krugman is “that fool on television getting payed to play the fool”, and we all get that, including Krugman. The economic models are slightly better than global warming models, I can opine with as much legitimacy as anyone else.

Her follow-up post about Ryan’s Roadmap plan as such, triggers this post:

Nonetheless, I think it’s a really, really important document. Why? Because it is the most honest attempt I’ve seen by a politician to grapple with the challenges ahead of us. Strike that; it is the only attempt that I’m aware of to grapple with what lies ahead of us. Others have been willing to discuss things piecemeal, or delegate the nasty job of balancing a budget to a commission, but as far as I know only Paul Ryan has come forward and said, “Here’s how all the moving parts are going to fit together.”

And what this document shows is that it’s going to be difficult. Regardless of what you think of his tax plans, Paul Ryan has done what liberals keep asking Republicans to do: show us what he’d cut. No, he hasn’t gone through the whole budget with a fine toothed comb and given us the exact funding level for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If he had, it would be stupid; even the most powerful legislator cannot tie the hands of those in the future completely. He’s offered cuts to domestic discretionary spending and entitlements that would hold the line under 20% of GDP. If Republicans want to shrink the size of government, they’re going to have to sign onto Ryan’s spending plan, or put forward their own, with equally dramatic trimming.

OK, so it’s time to put on the Big Person Pants and just admit that our Shiny Progressive Utopia is a mirage

Do you want to be the one to tell them that they’re going to have to pay higher taxes for the same, or lower levels of services? I’ve been trying to tell them that for years now, and believe me, on the fun scale it’s somewhere between a root canal, and seeing Neil Diamond live . . . at the kind of venue that doesn’t serve alcohol.

But if we’re going to avoid a real, ugly fiscal crisis, the sort that ends up immiserating a bunch of people, someone is going to have to tell them. Someone in Congress, I mean. The deficit commission is not going to accomplish anything if congress isn’t willing to assess its priorities and make some hard choices. You may think that Paul Ryan is too hopeful about some areas of his plan; you may think that it won’t work. All fair enough, and that’s why any starter plan like this has to go through a lot of refining before it’s ready to become legislation. But at least Paul Ryan has a plan, no matter how incomplete or unworkable you think it may be. That’s more than the rest of us can say.

Things we ‘know’:

  • Krugman is a tool.
  • Social Security will not exist for Gen X and later.
  • Ryan’s plan, if anything, is too modest.
  • Progressivism was an experiment in un-Constitutional Federal over-reach.
  • Unlike fine wine, political cowardice does not improve with age.

I, for one, hope that my courageous State Attorney General picks up a head of steam from the ObamaCare suit and runs it straight up the rotten Progressive middle. Calling the Constitutional bluff on the rest of these disastrous entitlements is exactly where we need to go. Seventy years of precedent do not an Article Five amendment make. Social Security and its ugly children were false then, and the bastards are even less sustainable now.

Realistically, you’d have to partition the electorate into an older ‘sealed’ group who are untouchable, a ‘graying area’ where some options may apply, and a ‘sorry kids’ section, including me, where we just admit that the idea was untenable. The distorted mess has run open loop for too long, and anyone who is trying to pussyfoot around the economic realities is some blend of scoundrel and fool.

So let’s behave like adults, face the realities, and move the fracas to assigning the price tag for getting the Federal government out of the business of peddling utopia.

Category: Corruption, Democrats, Economics, Progressivism, Republicans

Comments

18 Responses to “It’s Time To Call The Bluff On Progressivism”

  1. Joe
    August 11th, 2010 @ 2:55 am

    Predictably, that other Atlantic writer, Andrew Sullivan, panned Ryan’s plan because he said it was not serious in cutting defense. So instead, Sullivan supports Barack Obama, not cutting anything and full spending and entitlement expansion ahead.

    Because it is all Bush’s fault.

    And Sarah Palin’s.

    And don’t forget Trig. He is in on it too.

    I remember those days when Sullivan used to actually criticize Krugman over his columns and spending and un-conservative views…

    I also remember those towers that used to stand in lower Manhattan. All that is gone.

  2. Joe
    August 10th, 2010 @ 10:55 pm

    Predictably, that other Atlantic writer, Andrew Sullivan, panned Ryan’s plan because he said it was not serious in cutting defense. So instead, Sullivan supports Barack Obama, not cutting anything and full spending and entitlement expansion ahead.

    Because it is all Bush’s fault.

    And Sarah Palin’s.

    And don’t forget Trig. He is in on it too.

    I remember those days when Sullivan used to actually criticize Krugman over his columns and spending and un-conservative views…

    I also remember those towers that used to stand in lower Manhattan. All that is gone.

  3. Adobe Walls
    August 11th, 2010 @ 2:58 am

    While repealing O-Care is priority one, we don’t have time to reclaim our country and constitution thru the courts, even if the current jurists weren’t permeated with despicable deference to terrible precedents. A RE-Constitutional convention is a must and we’ll be lucky if Americans can be made to see the necessity for that. I expect big gains for Republicans if not Conservatives this November. This does not by definition mean we get to implement a conservative economic plan which I define as getting government out of the economy’s way. If the American people don’t grasp that it will take two election cycles to begin our National Recovery we’re still screwed. Frankly Smitty I’m not as optimistic as I was a few months ago.

  4. Adobe Walls
    August 10th, 2010 @ 10:58 pm

    While repealing O-Care is priority one, we don’t have time to reclaim our country and constitution thru the courts, even if the current jurists weren’t permeated with despicable deference to terrible precedents. A RE-Constitutional convention is a must and we’ll be lucky if Americans can be made to see the necessity for that. I expect big gains for Republicans if not Conservatives this November. This does not by definition mean we get to implement a conservative economic plan which I define as getting government out of the economy’s way. If the American people don’t grasp that it will take two election cycles to begin our National Recovery we’re still screwed. Frankly Smitty I’m not as optimistic as I was a few months ago.

  5. smitty
    August 10th, 2010 @ 11:01 pm

    @AW,
    You won’t turn the ship of state that rapidly, but I’d support another Convention.
    But the idea takes long to get traction. Maybe for, say, the 250th anniversary of the DoI.
    The 111th Congress is a standing argument against cram-downs. It will take time.

  6. smitty
    August 11th, 2010 @ 3:01 am

    @AW,
    You won’t turn the ship of state that rapidly, but I’d support another Convention.
    But the idea takes long to get traction. Maybe for, say, the 250th anniversary of the DoI.
    The 111th Congress is a standing argument against cram-downs. It will take time.

  7. young4eyes
    August 11th, 2010 @ 3:02 am

    “This does not by definition mean we get to implement a conservative economic plan which I define as getting government out of the economy’s way”
    Wha?
    Is this a Conservative economic plan that doesn’t involve the bogus “trickle down” bamboozling?
    And does Ryan’s plan allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, as Bush himself would have wanted them to?
    I mean, if the tax cuts were such a great idea then why didn’t Bush make them permanent?
    And if they work so well, then why haven’t those very same tax cuts done much for the economy while they’ve been around?
    Hmmmm?

  8. young4eyes
    August 10th, 2010 @ 11:02 pm

    “This does not by definition mean we get to implement a conservative economic plan which I define as getting government out of the economy’s way”
    Wha?
    Is this a Conservative economic plan that doesn’t involve the bogus “trickle down” bamboozling?
    And does Ryan’s plan allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, as Bush himself would have wanted them to?
    I mean, if the tax cuts were such a great idea then why didn’t Bush make them permanent?
    And if they work so well, then why haven’t those very same tax cuts done much for the economy while they’ve been around?
    Hmmmm?

  9. Adobe Walls
    August 11th, 2010 @ 3:05 am

    @Gigi: There is no such thing as a Liberal Economist. That’s like referencing a compassionate crocodile the idea is just silly.

  10. Adobe Walls
    August 10th, 2010 @ 11:05 pm

    @Gigi: There is no such thing as a Liberal Economist. That’s like referencing a compassionate crocodile the idea is just silly.

  11. Randy Rager
    August 11th, 2010 @ 3:23 am

    I sure wish gigi and youngshorteyes would show up and add something constructive, hell, I’d settle for simple adult output from them at this point.

    But then, why should they change?

  12. Randy Rager
    August 10th, 2010 @ 11:23 pm

    I sure wish gigi and youngshorteyes would show up and add something constructive, hell, I’d settle for simple adult output from them at this point.

    But then, why should they change?

  13. Joe
    August 11th, 2010 @ 4:11 am

    Randy, why doncha just say “Candyman” three times while looking in the mirror.

  14. Joe
    August 11th, 2010 @ 12:11 am

    Randy, why doncha just say “Candyman” three times while looking in the mirror.

  15. Jeff
    August 11th, 2010 @ 11:36 am

    young4eyes …

    try google to get your answer on the Bush tax cuts …

    ignorance is bad, willful ignorance is worse …

  16. Jeff
    August 11th, 2010 @ 7:36 am

    young4eyes …

    try google to get your answer on the Bush tax cuts …

    ignorance is bad, willful ignorance is worse …

  17. Randy Rager
    August 11th, 2010 @ 5:59 pm

    I keep hoping they’ll be here at all, but I keep not seeing them.

    Man, attracting trolls is HARD.

  18. Randy Rager
    August 11th, 2010 @ 1:59 pm

    I keep hoping they’ll be here at all, but I keep not seeing them.

    Man, attracting trolls is HARD.