Paul Ryan's budget: 4 ways it proves he's not a fiscal mastermind
Mitt Romney's running mate has a reputation as a serious policy intellectual, but critics say his budget is just fuzzy math and magical thinking
Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate, is often characterized as the "Wonk King of the Republicans" — an expert on fiscal policy who enjoys perusing CBO budget estimates in his free time. The Wisconsin Republican's budget, titled "The Path to Prosperity," has been praised for its unflinching proposals to steer America away from a deficit abyss, particularly via a radical overhaul of Medicare and Medicaid. Ryan's critics, however, see the congressman as a salesman who has assiduously cultivated an image as a sensible wonk, but is really an ideological crusader using the aura of accounting to mask his tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor. Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist and liberal stalwart, says Ryan merely "scribbled some stuff down, without checking at all to see if it makes sense," while David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, says Ryan's plan is a fairy tale "devoid of credible math." Here, four ways Ryan's budget prove he's not the wonky fiscal mastermind he purports to be:
1. Ryan's numbers don't add up
2. His budget would balloon the national debt
3. He's performing some Medicare magic
4. He hopes to shrink the government to an unrealistic degree
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