I usually agree with many of Paul Krugman's points that he makes. Liberals owe great minds like his much due and credit for their abilities to formulate the economic thought we believe in. However, I strongly disagree with his, and many liberal assessments that Paul Ryan's budget plan is a fraud. The Ryan Plan is far from a fraud, it is as honest as a true Conservative can be with America. Liberals should not be attacking him as a fraud, we should use this plan to show what Conservatives actually believe.
It is not the perpetration of a fraud that Paul Ryan's budget as Paul Krugman states:
It calls for huge tax cuts, supposedly offset by closing loopholes and ending tax expenditures — except that in a long report he fails to name a single tax expenditure that he would cut. It assumes drastic cuts in discretionary spending, basically eliminating everything except defense. And over the medium term, of course, it’s a plan to savage the poor while giving big tax breaks to the rich. (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/...)
This is what they actually believe. It is not a fraud, it is overly partisan and quite truthful. The job we liberals have to take up is to show Americans why this plan will not help the America that we believe in. It is not about balancing the budget on the backs of the poor while the rich get more tax cuts. It is about the Conservative belief that it is pretty much every man and woman for themself. They don't see it as part of their civic duty to take care of the American people, they want you to take care of yourself.
Liberals, however realize that this is not every man/woman and child for themselves. We are a society, and as a society we have responsibilities to each other. It is not about big or small government, because we all believe in small government, it is just who is receiving the benefits of that government. This is about the change in the Conservative dialogue. Conservatives are no longer comfortable working the middle ground, they are looking for ideological purity. Paul Ryans plan is that ideological purity. He is not trying to pull a fast one, he is just not shying away from being a Conservative. That is how we must defeat these plans.
Paul Ryan's budget is a gift to liberals. If we message it right, we can show America how the Conservative vision excludes so many Americans from the American Dream. It removes our responsibility to each other, and it throws us all to the wolves of the market. While, I for one still believe in Capitalism, I do not believe in the idolatry of the market. What I am trying to say is the circus is not in town, and no Mr.Krugman, Paul Ryan is not a clown. For once Conservatives are giving us the best tool to fight them with, their actual beliefs.