Krugman- Ryan the Ridiculous

[n2doc]

April 5, 2011, 4:41 PM
Ryan The Ridiculous
OK, let’s leave the badness of the Medicare plan aside for now, and look at the economic projection the plan is based on. Here’s part of what the people at Heritage are claiming the plan will accomplish:


Heritage Foundation
In case you’re having trouble reading that, here’s the forecast for unemployment (the red line at the right) in the context of the historical record:


Except briefly during the Korean War, the United States has never achieved unemployment as low as Ryan and co. are claiming. The Fed believes that the lowest unemployment rate compatible with price stability is between 5 and 6 percent — that is, twice what Ryan is claiming he will achieve.

This is ridiculous; it’s megalomaniacal. If Obama tried to claim that his policies would achieve anything like this, he’d be laughed out of office.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/ryan-the-ridiculous/