Cohn: "Stunning Immorality of Ryan Budget"

Cohn: "Stunning Immorality of Ryan Budget" by MSW

My take on Ryan:

This is just for show. With the Budget Control Act, his committee is largely irrelevant - as it should be. His Medicaid proposals are a non-starter, because they would hurt current seniors who need nursing home care and the Tea Party would never allow them to go through, nor would AARP. The Medicare proposals he lays out are incoherent, because they include repealing Obamacare. The only way premiu...um support works is if both mandates and pre-existing condition reforms in the law remain in place.


The only tax change that will pass is a grand bargain at 28%, not 25%. That 3% is the difference between structural balance and ever expanding debt. Obama holds all the cards, since he can get the same level of revenue, and then some, by vetoing any extension of the Bush tax cuts. If Grover Norquist and the leadership don't get the inevitability of more revenue, the donors who will be paying it certainly do, provided they believe that Obama won't geek on extending the Bush cuts.
The conflict is all for electoral show. Once all the congressional primaries have been held, a deal will be reached because GOP donors want it that way, unless they already know Obama will geek on extending temporary tax cuts (in which case we might as well all vote for Romney).