When Rep. Paul Ryan insisted
two years ago that his budget "vision" wasn't truly unpopular, it was just misunderstood, it made for a good laugh. The laughs only got better when
he insisted that his constituents love his vision after he got booed out of a town meeting. After Ryan's vision was put on the national ballot, and lost, you might think Ryan would change his tune.
But no, Ryan is still at, insisting to Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation yesterday that his vision is the people's vision.
SCHIEFFER: I got it, now I know. Mr. Chairman, let me start with the hardest question of all. You unveiled your budget this week and critics immediately said this was, quote, "a retread of ideas that were soundly rejected in the last election." It does sound a lot like what you were talking about during the election. How do you respond to that?
RYAN: Well, look, our budget is a vision document. It is—our budget encapsulates what we think is the right way to go—fundamental tax reform for economic growth, patient-centered health care replacing ObamaCare, getting our budget balanced. It's a responsible balanced budget. And we think a budget is a necessary means to a healthier economy, to more jobs. That's why we're saying let's balance the budget so we can make sure that we don't have a debt crisis, give businesses the certainty they need so they can plan, invest, give families more of their own take-home pay. I hardly think that that's retread. I think that that's what people want. We've been criticized for repealing ObamaCare in our budget. It's not as if we woke up the day after the election and said let's change our principles, turn them in and throw in with government-run health care. We believe that young people, seniors, families, businesses are in for a very rude awakening as ObamaCare is rolled out. It still has nearly two years to go before it's fully implemented and we're showing that there's a better way of going and this is a better plan to balance the budget. And that's what our document does. That's what our budget provides for.
It's entirely possible that the "the people" Ryan talks to do love his ideas, because it's entirely possible that Ryan only listens to the ones who will be getting his
massive tax break. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, Ryan hands out at least $200,000 in tax cuts for people making more than $1 million. The Tax Policy Center
calcuates that people making more than $3.3 million would get a jaw-dropping $1.2 million on average. So I can imagine that those people, who have a direct line to Ryan, are pretty thrilled that he's created another massive ruse of a budget that's all window-dressing for big tax cuts for really rich people.
Those tax cuts, by the way, are part of the problem Ryan has with his supposedly balanced budget. He's got a $5.7 trillion (yes, trillion—with a "t") revenue hole because of that big giveaway. Ryan dismisses that as a "ridiculous statistic," based on "made up" assumptions. Which is true, because Ryan refuses to provide any actual details of his plan, so groups analyzing the budget have to use generic models that follow the bare outline he does provide.
But that's how Paul Ryan rolls. He doesn't need actual reality to back him up. The people want his vision (despite the fact that the nation rejected it), and his budget is balanced (except for that $6 trillion problem). That's his story, and he's sticking to it.