Talking Points Memo reports on various conservative economist’s responses to Paul Ryan’s recent budget proposal. Overall the consensus is very poor and some go as far as to ridicule it. David Stockman, former director of Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget, had this to say:
Stockman, who directed Ronald Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget, approves of Ryan’s entitlement proposals, but breaks faith over taxes and the GOP’s unwillingness to slash defense spending. And he laughs off the notion that the plan will do anything about unemployment, let alone dramatically reduce it, which Ryan and his plan claim it will. “This isn’t 1980. It’s not morning again in America. it’s late afternoon, or possibly even sunset.”
Ouch. Paul Ryan’s poor attempt at fake-it-till-you-make-it seems too heavy on the “fake it” side. Even his own conservative peers hold reservations.