The Cult of Ryan

Excuse me again. I have to get this one off my chest too.

If Paul Ryan was a true apostate from the cult of Ayn Rand he’d burn a copy of Atlas Shrugged on the Capitol steps.

Anyone who buys Paul Ryan’s claim that he’s reconverted from Rand’s Religion of Selfishness back to Catholicism and brought his budget in line with in the One True Faith puts me in mind of the missionary who having baptized the cannibal chieftain in the morning is shocked to find himself in the pot at dinnertime.

But it doesn’t matter if Ryan’s stopped making his new staff members read Atlas Shrugged and started handing out copies of Summa Theologica, his budget’s still recalcitrant.  It’s still a plan for granny-starving and punishing children for their parents’ sin of being poor.

What it’s not and never has been is a plan to sink the deficit.  Even if the numbers added up and no miracle was required---and they don’t and one is---the point isn’t to bring federal spending down. The point is to bring the federal government down.  The goal is to get government out of the government business.

Is there anybody who seriously thinks they’re kidding when they pledge to Pope Grover to drown it in a bathtub?

If Ryan’s budget becomes the law of the land the Feds will pretty much have no money to spend on anything except building tanks.

Republicans like this because it frees up corporations to take all the rest of our money and red states to let their poor starve.  meanwhile defense contracts are their favorite form of pork.

Don't be surprised though that even under the Ryan Plan money can still be found and earmarked to build roads in republican congressmen's districts.

There's a significant cadre among the media elite who wishes every day that the government would stop governing. All these policy arguments make their heads hurt. If politicians didn't do anything you wouldn't have to worry if they were doing the right thing. You wouldn't have to figure out which side you should be on because there’d be no more sides. All the fussing and fuming would be over who got which office.  Political reporting would be all gossip and soap opera which is all the care about and all they think politics is anyway and most of what they write and talk about already.

There are the Third Way/Americans Elect types who think the country would be better off if it was run by a board of wise men who didn't have to answer to voters. But there's a bigger bunch who just wish it would all go away and they could be left in peace to enjoy their free lunches, fancy dress balls, fat paychecks, and quasi- celebrity status without responsibility or guilt.

They hate Democrats and fawn over Republicans because Democratic aides start conversations by asking, “Did you read the Senator's policy paper?” while the first question a Republican asks is “Can I freshen that drink for you?”

Comments

[actor212]

Paul Ryan ought to let his freak flag fly high. Challenge them religiobots to a duel or something: 30 pieces of silver at ten paces.

[Mark]

Sometimes I think what this country needs is for the tea party to take over and get exactly what they want. After a few years, if the survivors can climb out of the ruins, maybe some kind of sense would prevail.

But then again, did sense prevail in the Fuherbunker in the spring of 1945?

[Linkmeister]

If you have a few bucks to spare after contributing to our gracious host you could throw some to Rob Zerban, who's running against Ryan in Wisconsin.