Paul Ryan's At It Again

by Stephen Lendman

He represents Wisconsin's first congressional district. He was Romney's vice presidential running mate. He's House Budget Committee chairman. Wall Street Journal editors love him.

On March 12, they headlined "A Ryan Reboot," saying:

His FY 2014 proposal is "an important document, even if it has no chance of becoming law this year, because it reaches for that elusive thing in Washington - realistic solutions to the country's problems."

A convoluted explanation followed. Journal editors want budget balancing on the backs of ordinary people. Ryan wants it done faster than he earlier proposed. He wants America's social contract destroyed.

He claims doing so increases economic growth. His reasoning is upside down. He wants tax cuts for rich elites left untouched. He wants corporations getting a free lunch.

He explained in a same day Journal op-ed, headlined "Paul Ryan: The GOP Plan to Balance the Budget by 2023." More on that below.

Last August, he and other Republican House Budget Committee members presented "The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal."

Gutting vital programs millions of Americans rely on was proposed. Ryan wants Medicare privatized. He wants Medicaid, food stamps, and other entitlement programs ended.

He wants Social Security privatized later. Eventually he wants it ended. He wants social spending cut to 1949 levels. He wants $5 trillion (largely from domestic programs) cut over the next decade.

He claims doing so promotes growth and creates jobs. He wants budget balancing on the backs of ordinary people. America's poor, most disadvantaged, and moderate earners are hurt most. Ryan dismissively doesn't care.

His program assures America's resources go to rich elites, bankers, war profiteers, and other corporate favorites.

"Prioritize national security by preventing deep, indiscriminate cuts to defense," he said.

Repeal Obamacare. "Advance bipartisan solutions that take power away from government bureaucrats and put patients in control."

In 2011, he proposed eliminating Medicare altogether. It passed the House but not the Senate.

Ryan claims his plan is responsible deficit cutting. Most of what's cut shifts to wealthy elites and corporate favorites. It funds America's war machine. It assures economic chaos.

Ryan's ideal society is no fit place to live in. He wants America returned to 19th century harshness. His agenda reflects reactionary extremism. He's at it again.

His latest proposal is worse than earlier ones. It accelerates budget balancing on the backs of ordinary people. He prioritizes force-fed austerity. He claims it's not so.

He says it's not important "how we balance the budget. It's why." It's for "the well-being of all Americans." It's to protect them from "tax hikes."

It's to "promote a healthier economy and help create jobs." It's to "reignite the American dream."

He believes anything government does business does better so let it. Washington's involvement is "overreach."

"By curbing (it), our budget will give families the space they need to thrive." How he doesn't say.

Balanced budgets stimulate economic growth, he claims. Smaller deficits "keep interest rates low." They're at Depression-level lows now.

Privatize, privatize, privatize, he stresses. Everyone one their own sink or swim.

Pie in the sky economic growth solves things, he promises. Cut taxes, don't raise them, he urges.

Repeal Obamacare. Replace it with something worse. Make America's dysfunctional healthcare system more predatory. Let insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains operate unregulated.

Medicare is going broke, he claims. It's not sound for the long run. Social Security faces trouble later, he says.

When properly administered, both programs are fiscally sound. Minor adjustments only are needed.

They're not entitlements. They're government guaranteed insurance programs. Payroll taxes fund them. Millions of Americans rely on them. Promises made must be kept.

Separating Trust Fund receipts from general revenues assures longterm health. Contractual federal obligations would be secure. Benefits could increase, not decline.

Responsible societies operate that way. Good government isn't rocket science. It's as simple as doing the right thing.

Ryan favors wealth, power and privilege. So do most Republicans and Democrats. Obama prioritizes major social spending cuts. He wants hundreds of billions slashed initially. More comes later.

He'll submit his own budget in early April. He wants Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts. Republicans and Democrats agree. Expect grand bargain betrayal.

The 2011 Budget Control Act mandates reductions in vital social programs. Medicare, Medicaid, public pensions, food stamps, and other important ones are targeted. They'll be hit in out years.

Sequestering $1.2 trillion is for starters. Bipartisan complicity agreed on around $4 trillion over the next decade. Ryan wants nearly $5 trillion. Expect much more before it ends.

Deficit cutting is subterfuge for protecting corporate handouts, bailing out bankers on request, cutting corporate taxes, keeping Bush era tax cuts largely in place, funding America's war machine, and letting ordinary people and seniors bear the burden of austerity harshness.

Poverty, unemployment, hunger and homelessness approach record levels. Austerity worsens hard times. Paul Craig Roberts calls conditions today "untenable."

Americans have less purchasing power than decades earlier. Inflation is much higher than reported. Unemployment is triple the headline number. A "perfect storm" awaits. "Armageddon" is a short leap away.

Budget cutting madness on the backs of ordinary people assures it. Coverup and denial claim otherwise. How long can this charade continue?

Instability and economic insecurity assure more of it. Bad policies beget bad results. America is the most unequal  developed country. It's one of the worst in the world, says

Roberts.

"Democratic capitalism" is an illusion. Attempting the impossible assures failure. Gerald Celente predicts "currency wars, trade wars, political upheavals and hot wars."

Humanity never was more imperiled. Roberts' new book explains. It's titled "The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Erosion of the West."

He discusses social, political and economic dispossession. It's occurring in Western societies. Crony capitalism drives them. Modern-age robber barons control things.

Monopoly concentration grows. Rule of the few over the many is policy. Bipartisan complicity permits it. Ordinary people head toward neoserdom.

Bilderberg scoundrels' ideal world approaches. It's unfit to live in. It prioritizes central control, one world government, a single global marketplace, a global currency and more.

They want national sovereignty abolished. They want new world order values established. It's based on rulers and serfs. Democracy is verboten. One size fits all is policy. So are manufactured crises and perpetual wars.

They want militarized control. They want NATO in charge. They want total control of education and the media. They want their message alone communicated. They want alternative visions blocked.

They want a universal legal system. They want outliers eliminated. George Soros favors a global sheriff. Perhaps he has himself in mind.

America's on a fast track toward full-blown tyranny. Increasing dystopian harshness reflects it.

Obama, complicit Democrats and Republicans bear full responsibility. Stopping them is top priority. If that doesn't matter most, what does?

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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