Budget Disinformation, Part 1 Million
I?m late in getting to Glenn Hubbard?s debt column, but it still needs further bashing. Here?s what Hubbard says about the Obama administration:
Ruling out long-term entitlement spending restraint, Mr Obama has argued that fiscal sustainability can be accomplished by raising marginal tax rates on households earning more than $250,000 per year.
This is what it technically known as a ?lie?. Has Obama ruled out entitlement spending restraint? Here?s his health policy head, explaining the plan:
While we?ve made real and significant progress, there is more work to do to strengthen Medicare for future generations. That?s why the President?s framework for shared prosperity and shared fiscal responsibility includes reforms that would save at least an additional $200 billion for Medicare over the next decade. The framework would:
-Bend the long-term cost curve by setting a more ambitious target of holding Medicare cost growth per beneficiary to GDP per capita plus 0.5 percent beginning in 2018, through strengthening the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).
-Reduce Medicare?s excessive spending on prescription drugs and lower premiums for beneficiaries without shifting costs to seniors or privatizing Medicare.
You can be skeptical about whether this plan will work ? but it?s just a lie to say that Obama is ?ruling out? spending restraint; and it?s equally false to say that he?s relying on tax hikes to do the whole job.
Then, of course, there?s the howler: describing Paul Ryan?s plan as ?well-crafted?. It is, on the contrary, ideology aside, a piece of junk on simple technical grounds ? and obviously so.
Oh, and while some people are still trying to praise Ryan for starting a useful conversation, the reality is that he?s totally unwilling to let facts enter the debate. Look at his exchange with Ezra Klein over health care costs: this is not the sound of a sincere, open-minded guy,. Notice how he evades Klein?s attempt to get him to accept the overwhelming fact that other countries pay much less for health care than we do.
Sorry, but we are not having a discussion ? nor will we, as long as right-wingers like Hubbard and Ryan feel that they can distort the facts with impunity.
Paul Ryan has experienced quite a comedown since a Democrat won Tuesday?s election in New York?s 26th Congressional District.
Held Hostage Over the Debt Ceiling
Will President Obama confront Republicans and say no to budget blackmail?
Seniors, Guns and Money
Those promises of no new taxes will mean savage cuts to benefits for older Americans.
The Unwisdom of Elites
The anatomy of a top-down disaster.
Source: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/budget-disinformation-part-1-million/
沒有留言:
張貼留言