Welcome to your Monday open thread. Well, what a weekend. I was absolutely riveted to the news all weekend. I’m still trying to process the meaning of those tragic events. That’s why I’m happy we can discuss other things.
Via Matt Yglesias, here’s a video of French children trying to identify obsolete technology. Funny, but also makes you feel old.
My favorite is when they’re looking at the 8″ floppy disks. I played with a lot of those in my day!
Rep. Paul Ryan is trying to make a name for himself as a budget watchdog, even though he’s a budget peacock. He was awarded as “FI$CY” award recently by a group called The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. However, Ryan is no fiscal watchdog and even the Economist has noticed:
The third choice, Paul Ryan, is more of a puzzle. Mr Ryan has been a leading intellectual on economic matters in the Republican House caucus for some time. His “Roadmap for America’s Future”, was a serious proposal to balance the long-term budget by effective (though politically unpalatable) means, such as replacing traditional Medicare fee-for-service with vouchers.
It’s a good thing for Mr Ryan the Fiscy relates only to the fiscal year that ended on September 30th, because ever since then he’s been acting less like a deficit hawk. Like Mr Conrad, Mr Ryan was a member of the Bowles-Simpson commission. Unlike Mr Conrad, he voted against its plan to stabilise the debt despite calling it “serious and credible”. He opposed it because it left Mr Obama’s health-care reform intact, and because it relied too much on tax increases, even though these were smaller than the plan’s spending cuts. The opposition by Mr Ryan and his two fellow House Republicans more or less guaranteed the plan would die.
A few days later Mr Ryan congratulated Mr Obama for acting “responsibly” in capitulating to Republicans and agreeing to an $800 billion-plus package that extends all of George Bush’s tax cuts and implements new temporary stimulus composed overwhelmingly of tax cuts. Whatever its merits as stimulus, its complete absence of any linkage to long-term deficit reduction is antithetical to the principals behind the Fiscy.
I have no idea what the criteria for being called a fiscal hawk is. To me it looks like belief in magical tax-cutting unicorns is the main qualification.