Potential 2012 GOP Presidential Candidates Embrace Ryan Budget Plan

David Brooks, naturally, is a big fan of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget. He likes it even more than the Simpson-Bowles chairman's mark, that he liked as recently as a few weeks ago. So now, Brooks is thundering from his New York Times column that Ryan's "proposal will set the standard of seriousness for anybody who wants to play in this discussion." I'd say that he'd like my "0.8 percent unemployment plus everyone in the top one percent of income earners gets a free Pegasus" plan even more, but the Congressional Budget Office has refused to score it, saying, "Who the hell are you and how did you get in the building?"

The point is, your 2012ers are heeding Brooks and happily outsourcing their original thinking on budget matters to Ryan:

• Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels gave Ryan's plan a glowing tweet. "The first serious proposal produced by either party to deal with the overriding issue of our time."
• "There is hope!" 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin tweeted. "Serious & necessary leadership rolls out serious & necessary reform proposal. Good start."
• "Thanks to Paul Ryan in Congress, the American people finally have someone offering real leadership in Washington," former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in a statement. But he left himself a little room to maneuver by offering that the plan "is going to be debated for several months to come."
• "He is setting the right tone for finally getting spending and entitlements under control," ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney wrote in a press release. "Anyone who has read my book knows that we are on the same page."
• "Congressional Republicans are making the tough choices in the short and long-term to bring the Federal budget under control," says former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, via a statement, "and I urge the American people to stand with them in the face of the Democratic party obstructionism."

(Here are some specific examples of what Brooks believes to be "serious," by the way: "The Ryan budget doesn't touch Medicare for anybody over 55, but for younger people it turns it into a defined contribution plan." Yes, it's amazing how "serious" this is, asking the younger generation to continue to fund a product they won't benefit from themselves while locking in that senior vote. Additionally, Brooks says, "[Ryan] would reform the tax code along the Simpson-Bowles lines, but without the tax increases." Less revenue, to Brooks, equals more "seriousness.")

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Comments

[PtaRay]

05:50 PM on 04/19/2011

Ryans plan is the "great white hope" plan. It takes the last tiny free moving money that the working class , or 95% of the American peoples saftey net finances and hands it over to the wealthy, the corporate interests and kills medicare. Of course David Brooks loves that plan. he is still looking forwards to the "shiney city on the hill" premise. the vast majority of Americans, whio are soon to be mostly minorities (as a racial mix) will be the second class citizens, who will be the working class all over again, but this time at the mercy of the 5% who now know if you want to feed your family, you will work for peanuts, as the new order, will be run by independent contractors and corporate shills.
But of course this is just a liberal paranoid idea right?....
Look at who likes the Ryan plan, and its almost all either radicals on the right, or the most right leaning democrats... so it is still just another crazy way to draw Americans to the right, while claiming it is centrist, WHICH IT IS NOT, THE RYAN PLAN IS RADICAL RIGHT VOODOO FINANCIALS.

[Coppelia1189]

03:48 PM on 04/10/2011

In this kind of economy and because of TARP, Ryan's budget is political suicide. Just watch: even some of his Republican colleagues in the House will start backing away when they start hearing from voters back home. There is an issue of fairness, and this ain't it!

[Howard Roark Laughed]

02:55 PM on 04/09/2011

Do you know why Congressman Ryan's budget is the ONLY one for America?

"Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Paras/tes who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should."

--Alan Greenspan

[Joemama54]

11:30 PM on 04/08/2011

Ok Lets have at it. Time to reform health care.
We should start right now with a pilot program.
Eliminate the Government health insurance plan for our elected officials and their families.
How about we give all present and past Congressmen/women, and
Senators and Presidents, and Vice Presidents $8000 premium supplements to go out and purchase health insurance and dental insurance and disability insurance for their families.
They could have their own race to the bottom as they would be allowed to purchase their plan in any State they would like.
While we are at it, we should eliminate their pensions. We simply can not afford those bloated pensions that were promised a long time ago.

[ross nichols]

07:28 AM on 04/08/2011

Palin is not a candidate!

[ross nichols]

07:25 AM on 04/08/2011

Palin is NOT a pyential candidate,stop saying she is!

[mstock57]

11:52 PM on 04/07/2011

Sounds like the Republican party is about to pull a Jonestown.

[aviandonn]

02:41 AM on 04/07/2011

Not one of these so-called presidential candidates has read Ryan's proposal. And as the details start coming out and the public mood towards it starts to turn ugly, everyone of these candidates is going to start backtracking.

[dayzee10]

12:54 AM on 04/07/2011

That picture shows a couple of guys that care for the middle class!

[Drew2U]

06:27 PM on 04/06/2011

Look at the snakes lining up to pat each other on the back in their inexcusable praise for this ALBATROSS of a "budget." The only clearly good news of this whole thing is that "Root Canal" Ryan will go down and take the Tea Party with him.

[dwedge]

05:01 PM on 04/06/2011

Of course they like it. It asks sacrifices of the poor and middle class. There are no sacrifices for the rich and powerful. It is right out of the Republican Bible.

[ross nichols]

07:51 AM on 04/08/2011

well said,exactly.

[BLACKCAT66]

04:47 PM on 04/06/2011

Does anyone else just want to beat the smirks off of these two faces or is it just me?

[Wide Stance]

06:20 PM on 04/06/2011

I was trying to figure out which one was the joke teller and which was "audience." Usually you can tell, but not with those two professional clowns.

[ROR]

08:12 PM on 04/06/2011

Insuring neither one make it into the white house come election day will take care of that!!!

[Bluedanube]

02:41 PM on 04/06/2011

If Congressman Ryan ever read Dickens "A Christmas Carol" he must have been disappointed when Ebeneezer transformed himself into a caring person.

[myrtle1909]

01:26 PM on 04/06/2011

One of the problems in this country is Fox news who preaches a lot of false information and the people who watch it believe every word no matter how bazare it sounds. We need a media that will take on Fox and tell the truth to the people. Unfortunately the more times a lie is told the more apt it is believed to be the truth.

[Drew2U]

06:29 PM on 04/06/2011

...and the second problem is that there are so many uneducated, ill-informed people who would rather some rodeo clown on FOX tell them what they think rather than think for themselves. This is why you have people holding up "GOVT OUT OF MY MEDICARE" signs at the Tea Party rallies. God help the people in this country.

[mstock57]

11:54 PM on 04/07/2011

The rodeo clown just lost his job.