Paul Ryan

So Much for the Impending Economic Armageddon Federal Budget Deficit

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Surprise, when tax revenues increase the deficit goes down.  Such was the news of a new CBO update on the federal budget deficit.

If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion, CBO estimates, the smallest shortfall since 2008.

Paul Ryan Wants to Destroy Social Security & Medicare

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ssThe election of Worse and Worser continues. We now know Romney's VP pick, Paul Ryan. Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan managed to get the House Budget Committee chair, and has been on a quest to destroy Social Security and Medicare.

Ryan proudly is the author of the top 11 idiotic ideas to reduce the budget. He also tried to kill Medicare.

Romney has already promised to enact Ryan's right wing social engineering plan in his first 100 days in office.

What a gift to Obama. Face it folks, we're now stuck with Obama for four more years. AARP alone will surely mount their legions to vote against the Galt/Gekko Replication ticket. Most people know election 2012 is the battle of the billionaires, we sure don't have a say. But now the choice has become astounding. We don't think even the Koch Brothers, with their propaganda armies can turn this tide around.

Ben! Say It Ain't So! America Could Be Like Greece?

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us greeceToday Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke testified before the House Budget Committee. The quote which implies America could become Greece is this:

Even the prospect of unsustainable deficits has costs, including an increased possibility of a sudden fiscal crisis. As we have seen in a number of countries recently, interest rates can soar quickly if investors lose confidence in the ability of a government to manage its fiscal policy. Although historical experience and economic theory do not indicate the exact threshold at which the perceived risks associated with the U.S. public debt would increase markedly, we can be sure that, without corrective action, our fiscal trajectory will move the nation ever closer to that point.

Greece?   Really?   Business Insider calls this plain annoying. The comparison is the wrong country. America really looks like Japan. The dire warning the United States could become like Greece is really about health care costs. Federal outlays for health care are already 5% of GDP and we have apocolyptic projections for meteoric health care costs increases. Here's Bernanke on those: