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Wednesday, 6 April 2011

The Ryan Plan

Posted on 06:08 by hony
Look, what Freddie said. Exactly what Freddie said.

But a couple of weeks ago I suggested that we all need to start looking for the good in each other. I wrote: "People are idiots. People are hypocrites. People are greedy and self-serving and stuck in their ways. People are spiteful. People are egomaniacal or narcissistic or both. But if we all start focusing on the good in each other: people can sacrifice, people can work hard, people can respect each other, people can laugh and cry and hug each other...if we start seeing those things, it becomes easier for us to work with them, and they with us. In short, it becomes easier to work together and stop mucking up the future."

I stand by that. And so, I rarely do this, but I have to agree with Megan McCardle when she says:
That means that any real budget deal is going to have to, somehow, bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats.  The Ryan plan is fine as a starting point for talks.  It is not fine if the GOP refuses to accept that it cannot also be the ending point.

My personal opinion is that the Ryan plan is awful. It's the same old conservative cronyism that made me excited about my Obama vote in 2008. I can't turn my back on the poor "for the sake of the country." We're all in this together, and as I suggested by analogy, those who reap the largest harvest due to American Freedom should sow the most seeds next spring.
But nevertheless, in my engineering group we operate under the credo "the more bad ideas the better" because from those bad ideas we can dialogue and eventually find a good one. So while I will not possibly ever think that Paul Ryan's budget proposal is anywhere near "reality" I will say that I am glad ideas are being profferred, and I am doubly glad those ideas have spawned copious dialogue. Now, whether that dialogue leads to compromise...that's the tough question.


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