Paul Ryan had a bad week.
First, the "serious" congressman was invited to sit in the front row for President Obama's budget speech last Wednesday. Apparently this was so the President could look him straight in the eye as he spanked him for his ridiculous budget proposal -- a proposal that would eliminate Medicare at the same time that it gives more tax cuts for the wealthiest, all the while doing absolutely nothing to decrease the deficit. He deserved a spanking and he got it. It has been a lot of fun since then watching the Republicans and Fox News whine about how mean the President was for spanking Ryan in public. You see, it's OK for Republicans to call Obama a communist, socialist, fascist usurper from Kenya who is out to single-handedly destroy America. It's not OK for Democrats, especially the President, to point out the fact that Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" is a ridiculous, unserious document that will actually destroy the middle class in the long run while redistributing even more wealth to the richest.
Second, the movie "Atlas Shrugged" was released to the worst reviews I've seen since "Heaven's Gate" about 25 years ago. Why anyone would want to make or see a movie based on this turd of a book is beyond me, but it got made anyhow. A wealthy conservative friend of mine that adores the book told me that it doesn't matter that the characters are wooden stiffs that bear no real resemblance to actual human beings -- the book was just a way for Rand to get her insane ideas across. Funny, I always thought novels were supposed to illustrate reality in some form or another and a key to that is having characters that bear some resemblance to reality.
Third, the Democrats then made the Republicans look just plain foolish when they voted present in an attempt to force the Republicans to pass a budget that actually is even farther to the right than Ryan's -- a budget that I believe was put there just to make Ryan's look better by comparison, but one which the Republicans really did NOT want to pass. The Democrats forced the Republicans to actually go on record opposing their own budget! The GOPers had to vote against it simply because passing that budget would have virtually guaranteed that the House would go back to Democratic control in 2012.
Fourth, Alan Greenspan -- the ultimate Randian -- yesterday called for the Bush tax cuts to expire. What a slap in the face this must be to Ryan and all the other Randian idiots (yes I'm talking about you, Rand Paul) .When the man who has done more to introduce Rands batshit crazy ideas into the American body politic openly revolts and calls for tax hikes, it has got to hurt. Greenspan stated that he believes the tax rates should revert back to where they were under President Clinton, an idea that is repellent to anyone in the Republican Party, especially the tea partiers.
Fifth, Ryan then went on Face the Nation where Bob Schieffer (not one of my favorite interviewers, but he's sure as hell better than David Gregory) spanked him again. When asked to respond to the President's fairly transparent blast at him, Ryan basically said he could respond to each of the President's points, but he chooses not to. WTF? Since when has any Republican chosen not to respond to anything Obama says -- unless he had absolutely nothing to say, knowing that anything that came out of his mouth would just make him look worse than he already does?
The more Ryan and the Randians are out in public, the worse they look. I'm all in favor of having them out there each and every day, because sooner or later the American public will see what these idiots really want -- an American oligarchy completely controlled by and for corporations. We're already a long way on that path, but there is still time to retrace those steps. I hope.
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