Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said today that President Obama can’t even do simple math. At a bloggers briefing Wednesday hosted by The Heritage Foundation, the House budget chairman quoted Obama as saying, “If we’re not willing to ask those who’ve done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit… the math says… we’ve got to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor.”
The “actual math,” said Ryan, shows that taxing the rich will not fix the deficit or the economy.
“The way out of this mess is to combine economic growth with reasonable, responsible spending restraint. Yet neither of these things factors into the President’s zero-sum logic.”
The audience erupted into laughter when Ryan referenced an NFL star quarterback who had quite a hard time retiring for real.
“Also according to the President’s logic, spending restraint is incompatible with a strong, well-functioning safety net. The belief that recipients of government aid are better off the more we spend on them is remarkably persistent. No matter how many times this central tenet of liberalism gets debunked, like Brett Favre, it just keeps coming back.”
But the atmosphere became serious when Ryan brought up the futures of his three young children.
“The President’s political math is a muddled mix of false accusations and false choices. The actual math is apolitical, and it’s clear: By the time my kids are my age, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the size of government will be double what it is today.”
Ryan went on to say that “runaway inflation in health care costs” would increase the cost of government health care programs so much that they would be impossible to fund. Apparently, Obama agrees.
“It’s impossible to keep funding health care expenditures at this rate. Even President Obama has said, quote, ‘If you look at the numbers, Medicare in particular will run out of money, and we will not be able to sustain that program no matter how much taxes go up.’”
When it comes to the President’s plan to tax the rich, Ryan said, “his math is no better.” Ryan’s math shows that taking every penny of those earning $250,000 and above would “only fund the government for six months. Just six months!”
Small wonder that conservatives are “disappointed” that Ryan is not among the candidates for presidency.
