Matthew Yglesias, by way of the Center for Tax Justice, reminds us that Paul Ryan's original budget "road map" includes a substantial tax hike on 90 percent of Americans. Here is the relevant chart:
Since The Wall Street Journal reports that it will include a "fundamental overhaul of the tax system," odds are good that this will also be true of the upcoming GOP budget.
In other words, Ryan is openly pushing for a plan that dismantles Medicare and tears down Medicaid for the purpose of massively redistributing wealth to the wealthy. It's class warfare in its purest distillation, and Ryan has done nothing to hide his straightforward and unambiguous contempt for the non-rich. I'm impressed, if only because of his chutzpah and his skill in presenting himself as a responsible "budgeteer" and not just a Randian crusader for the interests of the privileged.
Relatedly, while it's important for liberals to push against the substance of Ryan's budget plan, it's just as important (if not more so) to push against this sentiment:
Ms. Rivlin said in an interview Sunday she would have preferred a plan that phased in more quickly and left a traditional Medicare program as a default option for seniors. But overall she supported Mr. Ryan's idea. "What Democrats have to realize is we have to do something," Ms. Rivlin said. "Current policy on Medicare is not sustainable. You can worry about how you structure a premium support program, but I think it's a good way to think about the future of Medicare." [Emphasis mine]
The United States faces a long-term debt problem, but we don't have an immediate debt crisis, and draconian cuts to social programs aren't actually necessary for short- or medium-term sustainability. Conflating "problem" with "crisis" is a recipe for irresponsible policies that take their greatest toll on the least well-off. This was true in 2003 when the problem was Iraq, and it's true now when the problem is debt.
