Paul Ryan's Plan for American Decline

Wisconsin Republican's disappearing government

Mar. 26, 2012

midnight

If the foreign adversaries and competitors of the United States imagined a future that would fulfill their most ambitious objectives, it might begin with a government crippled by the House Republican leadership's "Ryan budget" released last week. Followed to its absurd conclusion, this document would lead America toward a withered state, approaching the point where Marxian dreams and Randian dogma converge. Or at least that's the view suggested by the sober analysts at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), whose report on the Ryan budget shows debilitating cuts to nearly every department of government today, be it law enforcement and border patrols or scientific research, food safety, environmental protection, federal highways, national parks, weather monitoring, education and all the other essential functions of a great country. There would not be much left for Medicare and Medicaid, either. Social Security would continue in some form, and defenseof coursewould increase. But in a nation stripped of science and infrastructure, with a people demoralized by insecurity, unemployment and inequity, exactly what would be left to defend? Certainly Ryan and his Republican colleagues will deny that their new budgetlike their old budgetwould cripple the federal government and render the United States unrecognizable over the coming decades, if implemented. Yet the calculations released by the CBO, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, permit no other conclusion. Pentagon Spending Would Be Protected Prepared at the request of Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee, the CBO report indicates that by 2050 federal spending on all functionsexcept Social Security, health programs and interest paymentswould account for no more than 3.75% of gross domestic product (GDP). On defense alone, however, we have never spent less than 3% of GDP during the past 70 years or so; and during those same years, we have spent no less than 8% of GDP on all those functions, including defense. Which means that should Pentagon spending increase drastically, as both Ryan and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney insist it should, there will be nothing left for anything else. "The rest of government would literally have to disappear," as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains dryly. Is it necessary to recite the details, even in broad outline? No more basic research and no more support for technological progress in defense, communications, medicine, manufacturing, energy or education. No more health care, secondary education or vocational training for veterans. No more reconstruction of decaying roads, bridges, airports, waterways, tunnels, seaports or any other infrastructure that states cannot afford to rebuild on their own. No more national parks, which presumably will be sold off to oil companies, resort developers and other commercial predators. No more oversight of the purity of food and drugs, whether domestic or imported. No further enforcement of the environmental statutes that have restored clean air and water in so many places across the country. No more Federal Bureau of Investigation, no more Immigration and Customs Enforcement and no more Department of Homeland Securityno more federal justice system at all. And very little health care, which would be cut by as much as 75%, leaving tens of millions without insurance coverage. Is all this starting to sound slightly weird? That is certainly one way to describe the Ryan budget, which evokes the utopian fantasies of both Karl Marx, who predicted the "withering away of the state" after communism, and Ayn Rand, whose hatred of modern government inspired anarchist (or "minarchist") fantasies among many of her admirers. What is truly bizarre is to watch a major political party produce such a document not once but twiceand then to hear this absurd exercise hailed by Washington commentators as "bold" and "patriotic." © 2012 Creators.com

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I ran through my tax software sometime back, it sa...

I ran through my tax software sometime back, it said that my tax dollar is spent like this... 20% to defense, 4% to veterans and foreign affairs, 16% to welfare (medicaid and food stamps), 9% to unemployment and social services, 36% to Social Security and Medicare, 6% to interest on national debt, 2% on law enforcement and general government, 7% on infrastructure and community development.

It took us 50-60 years to get into this mess, it is not going to be fixed in a single 4-year presidential term.

The only reason to "change" in such short time is to use several years of hard recovery to effectively remove a segment of the population from being included on the "Road to Prosperity".

Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground laws are like saying "open season" on those who do not fit into your community, it encourages a segregation that says stay in your allotted place whether it is prosperous or not. If not prosperous, do not even think of rising out of it. No due process, no right to tell your side of the story to a jury of your peers, no presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Closer to street justice and living in fear. Get that established on private home ground and it won't take long to stretch it to cover your entire government region.

Look at science and technology, it is no longer the exclusive holding of Americans. Look at who wins Nobel Prizes, plenty of foreigners and non-whites. No more research for the common good, if it cannot be monetized, then it should not be allowed (that's the game of privatization). If The polio vaccine had been developed by today's Big Pharma, then the maximum profit plan would have been to keep the poorest ranks un-vaccinated, so that the disease will still be in the wild, the rest of us will be blackmailed into having to get our vaccinations to keep from getting the infection from those still walking among us. Money spent on an unnecessary avoidance instead of on something worthwhile. On-going cash flow instead of a one-time cure and elimination of the disease from a future comeback.

Private enterprise should be there to take care of our wants, where the most should go to those who can afford it, "more or better wants" is the way to reward success. But the delivery of basic needs should be done by agencies not dependent on profit, thereby making it available for all. Since when should "being alive" be a want instead of a need. -- The point is to make sure these needs are properly and efficiently delivered, have the ability to fire those who are not able to do the job. PS - these basic needs should not be at a level that makes hard-working people envious. Even medical care will be lower cost if we stop subsidizing junk foods that make us unhealthy and in need of expensive services.

As long as we define growth as being funded by debt to be paid off tomorrow on someone else's dime, we cannot sustain. Long term sustaining would need to have as much being trickled and/or redistributed back down as what rises to the top. What the GOP is desiring is mere short-term postponement, allow the wealthy to get their profits out of the game and leave the casino before the casino goes bankrupt. In their plan, a few chosen win, but the the majority must lose.