Fareed Zakaria usually focuses on international issues on "Fareed Zakaria GPS," but delved into Paul Ryan's proposed budget yesterday. His take is pretty blunt--it's a loser.
The good news is that Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican chair of the House Budget Committee, has put out a budget plan for the next year and beyond that tries to tackle America's biggest long-term problem –entitlement spending that is careening out of control.
The bad news is that his plan wouldn't work.
While Zakaria calls Ryan's plan a serious effort to restructure entitlements, he points out the plan doesn't give specifics on what to do about discretionary spending. Additionally, Ryan's beloved health savings accounts would still push Medicare through the roof because the sickest 25 percent of Medicare patients would still buy catastrophic insurance.
Zakaria is no less blunt in his Time column, saying it makes "magical" assumptions about economic growth (like predicting unemployment will go down to 4 percent). He also points out that the CBO doesn't think much of Ryan's health care plan either. He does, however, think the Democrats need to be ready with a counterplan--one that will cut spending in a more "humane" way.