Shooting Straight at The Young Guns

I have posted in the past regarding my interest in the career of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Together with Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy, Mr. Ryan has embarked on a mission to find reliable conservative candidates for the near future. Their first swag is the release in the next few weeks of a new book called "Young Guns".

Since I haven't read it I can offer no review (unlike others). However, I think I have some idea of what it will say. Mr. Ryan has produced policy statements and a plan to set right fiscal responsibility in Washington. While not necessarily austerity, his plan does make a radical shift from the Obama tactics of massive government stimulus - stimulus that should work but simply doesn't.

What is going to be most interesting is how loud and insulting the criticism is going to be. The louder and the more vicious the more I believe the Young Guns will be on to something. The critics will be from the "big government/capitalism has failed" crowd. I am certain Ryan and company are from the "massive government stifles everything" crowd.

Hence...

Paul Krugman of the New York Times weighed in immediately and dismissively. That, my friends is a welcome sign. Krugman's column was in fact what made me look to Ryan's Road Map For America website. The analysis by the CBO did not score the revenue side of the proposal but was fair and generally positive on the spending side. Other analysis have said some things don't quite add up, but were also generally positive. Liberals have seized on the Roadmap in order to say that Republicans want to leave seniors in the cold. Gee, where have we heard that before. Economists have been basically cold to hostile. Some, like Mike Norman, who is fond of calling people who have a different opinion from his "idiots", has called Ryan, Cantor and McCarthy idiots. I like Mike Norman actually, but he is economist not a politician, and politicians have to appear to have some fiscal restraint these days after the spending orgy of the current president.

No plan is perfect, no plan adds up, never has, never will - it's a plan not a dictate. It is a good starting point and a good rallying cry.

The Young Guns have a fundamentally different vision from the one now prevailing in Obama World. It sets the government on course to its proper role. It reigns in government spending, and therefore limits the size of government. It would plan revive a vibrant free-market economy that made America what it is. If it isn't clear by now it should be, the current regime is running hard the other way to knock America down a notch or three. The Young Guns, like many American's, still see this as a remarkable country, a notch or two above the rest.

I'm sure there will be more to come from these guys.


CW