Not all emailers have been nasty. Here's a sane one:
Look, I am all for reducing the deficit, massively reducing the deficit. But when these Republicans come up with cut, cut, cut, cut yet not only no tax increases but tax cuts, I find them wanting. It seems their goal is to shrink the deficits with spending cuts, blow it back up with tax cuts, rinse, repeat. When Paul Ryan proposes a plan that matches his spending cuts dollar for dollar with tax increases, then I will call him courageous. Until then, sorry, I just cannot take him seriously.
It would also be possible to come up with a plan that has $2 of cuts for every $1 of tax hikes – which is not far off what the Coalition government in Britain has done.
The reason I am glad that Ryan has put out his report is that it honestly reveals the sheer scale of the problem, and cannot hide the fact that it will hurt seniors, the poor, and the middle class. For so long now, no Republican has fessed up to the pain involved in balancing the budget. Whatever its flaws, the Ryan plan shifts the debate to more realistic grounds, which is a success in and of itself. Another writes:
Like you, I had an initially positive reaction to the Ryan plan, but as I read more and more, the only positive I take away is that someone had the courage to propose a plan that is easy to 'death panel'. So kudos for showing the courage, but I think his plan falls apart in the details and the assumptions.
Especially related to a number of things Krugman is pointing out: extreme cuts to domestic spending, his rosy assumptions on a jobs recovery that has no basis in recent (since 2009) or distant (1980's) history and a robust real-estate recovery which has not even started yet despite very low interest rates. If you assume you can cut more than you can cut and assume that your tax revenues are going shoot up from jobs that probably won't ever appear, you can propose just about anything and look fiscally sound when you roll the numbers up. I.e. Garbage in, Garbage out.
That said, I am holding out hope that the other side of the government shutdown mess, we find Obama counter-proposing, perhaps with more realistic assumptions and a more revenue positive proposal.
Yep, the ball is in Obama's court. Will he exploit this for electoral gain or offer a more equitable proposal to get to the same place? The answer to that will tell us a lot.
The Dish 