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> the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives wants to hurt poor people. No. He wants the government to spend less of his money. Maybe

> the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives wants to hurt poor people. No. He wants the government to spend less of his money. Maybe he doesn't care whether that means poor people get hurt, but it's not the same thing.

emodendroket 9y ago
If his concern were really nothing but spending then he'd be an enthusiastic military budget hawk too. He isn't.
- mac01021 9y ago
  Ok. So he wants to cut spending and also keep his party's donors happy. That second constraint prevents many kinds of cuts, but not all of them. My point was that he's not malicious, merely apathetic. Hurting people by cutting their benefits is not the goal. Cutting spending by cutting their benefits is the goal.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    And I'm supposed to believe that his donors have no interest in an employer-friendly labor market? Questions about how to spend money are rarely neutral, value-free ones. To put it another way, George W. Bush wildly expanded spending with his Medicare Part D program, but that was supported by the Republicans because it achieved other goals (the main one was ensuring no cost control was built into the measure, since it was suspected that if Democrats passed a similar measure it would allow negotiation to drive down costs). Is this the move of a group whose primary concern is fiscal discipline? https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/medicare-part-d-republican-budget-busting/ https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/medicare-part-...
eli_gottlieb 9y ago
He only ever wants to cut the social state. Nothing else. His agenda is clearly that the real moral "good guys" of the United States are big business, and everyone else should basically subsidize them, being mere hangers-on.
CalChris 9y ago
If Ryan wanted to say we've been dreaming of [cutting spending] since you and I were drinking out of kegs he could have said that. But he didn't. He was talking about cutting Medicaid. He wasn't talking about canceling the F35. Indeed FY18 procures 46 more F35s. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2018/fy2018_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudge...

emodendroket 9y ago

If his concern were really nothing but spending then he'd be an enthusiastic military budget hawk too. He isn't.

mac01021 9y ago
Ok. So he wants to cut spending and also keep his party's donors happy. That second constraint prevents many kinds of cuts, but not all of them. My point was that he's not malicious, merely apathetic. Hurting people by cutting their benefits is not the goal. Cutting spending by cutting their benefits is the goal.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  And I'm supposed to believe that his donors have no interest in an employer-friendly labor market? Questions about how to spend money are rarely neutral, value-free ones. To put it another way, George W. Bush wildly expanded spending with his Medicare Part D program, but that was supported by the Republicans because it achieved other goals (the main one was ensuring no cost control was built into the measure, since it was suspected that if Democrats passed a similar measure it would allow negotiation to drive down costs). Is this the move of a group whose primary concern is fiscal discipline? https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/medicare-part-d-republican-budget-busting/ https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/medicare-part-...

eli_gottlieb 9y ago

He only ever wants to cut the social state. Nothing else. His agenda is clearly that the real moral "good guys" of the United States are big business, and everyone else should basically subsidize them, being mere hangers-on.

CalChris 9y ago

If Ryan wanted to say we've been dreaming of [cutting spending] since you and I were drinking out of kegs he could have said that. But he didn't. He was talking about cutting Medicaid. He wasn't talking about canceling the F35. Indeed FY18 procures 46 more F35s. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2018/fy2018_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudge...