Paul Ryan Hates the Poor and Loves the Rich (So He's a Moderate!)

He's further to the right than Trump and about as nasty as Cruz. Who knew? (You should have...)

Paul Ryan: Still flying under the asshole radar?

One thing that has continued to confound me is how the media never truly digs into Paul Ryan's far-right, take-from-the-poor and give-to-the-rich fake "moderate" stance. If you look into who and what he is, you find him much like Pope Francis (apologies to Pope fans): one of the nicest assholes in the world -- in other words, still an asshole. Vox.com gives us the rundown:

This idea of Ryan as a serious adult with a "moderate congressional track record" is a tempting one, but let's not fool ourselves. Ryan talks a good game about caring about poverty and rejecting the "makers versus takers" frame of many conservatives. But in his time as a national figure, he's been a consistent advocate of aggressive cuts to the social safety net and to Social Security and Medicare, and for tax reforms at least as regressive as those envisioned by Cruz and Trump.

Paul Ryan is many things. But he is no moderate.

Which of his policies aren't moderate? All of them:

Ryan first came to public prominence in 2005, as one of the most vocal proponents of privatizing Social Security in the House GOP. His specific plan, the Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act, was the most radical floated during that period. It would have allowed workers to redirect more than half of their 12.4 percent payroll tax contribution to Social Security into a private account, with poorer workers being able to redirect more.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that the plan would increase the debt by 93.7 percent of GDP — a more than doubling — by 2050. The problem is that by radically reducing payroll tax revenue, the plan would require a huge, ongoing infusion of revenue from income taxes and other sources. Specifically, it'd require an ongoing tax increase of 1.5 percent of GDP, or about $280 billion a year. The revenue shortfall the plan would create would more than double the Social Security shortfall at the time, thereby worsening the very problem the proposal was intended to solve.

The truth about Paul Ryan is true about most "fiscal conservatives": If solving entitlements makes things much worse, the real agenda is to destroy them.

That, my friends, is the truth about Paul Ryan, which is what makes him actually more dangerous that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Read the entire Vox piece. It's a must.