I just spoke with a sharp Democratic Congressional staffer I know who tells me that he thinks Ryan was a smart choice for Romney. He says that there was no way Romney would be able to hide from the Ryan budget plan — because Obama would pound him on it and the wingerati would insist that Romney stick by it — and that Ryan is the best salesman for the plan. Bear in mind, it’s not Ryan’s plan per se, it’s something people drew up in a right-wing think tank. Ryan’s just a frontman for the operation. He’s done a fantastic job (via) of getting Beltway idiots to pretend that a predictably radical right-wing plan is some wonderful piece of wonky courage.
I think my friend is probably right that Romney was stuck with the Ryan budget plan anyway. The hard-core anti-New Deal right activist crowd has taken over the Republican party.
You go to war with the unpopular extremist policies you have, not the popular moderate policies you wish you had.
Telling people that you want to turn Medicare into a voucher program is probably political suicide. Real Murkins don’t like vouchers; at best, vouchers are something the airlines make it difficult for you to use, at worst, they’re a way to keep the strapping young bucks from blowing all their welfare money on steak and cigarettes.
If this election is a referendum on vouchercare, Democrats obviously win. But Josh Marshall’s stunt stand-in is completely wrong here:
Having Ryan on the ticket will make it difficult for the losers of the election to claim that the winners doesn’t have some claim to pursue their fiscal vision. A decisive electoral resolution to this high stakes political fight is actually kind of scary no matter where you come down on issues like Medicare, Medicaid and tax policy. But it’ll also be good for the country if it means the government will have new running room to pay at least passing attention to things like mass unemployment and eroding infrastructure that the next president will have to deal with, whether he’s a Republican or Democrat.
That’s bullshit. If Romney wins, it will mean Republicans have a mandate to turn the country into the Randian paradise the Founding Fathers envisioned. If Obama wins, it will mean that the Kenyan soshulist had the sense to tack to the center…and he better stay there.
As Atrios famously said about some other election (I can’t find a link on teh google), whatever happens on election night will prove once and for all time that we are a right-center nation.
taylormattd
Sad, and completely correct. And nothing will ever change until the media as it is today is destroyed and rebuilt.
GregB
That’s bullshit. If Romney wins, it will mean Republicans have a mandate to turn the country into the Randian paradise the Founding Fathers envisioned. If Obama wins, it will mean that the
Kenyan soshulist had the sense to tack to the center…and he better stay there.he and his dark hordes of welfare moochers stole the election.Fixed it for you.
trollhattan
Ryan so far sounds like Willard with a fresh battery and a barrelfull of red meat for hungry wingnuts. But when is somebody going to push back on this “finally, a true wonk” meme I keep hearing? Ryan is a wonk like my dog is a philosopher.
c u n d gulag
Ryan’s in “The Catbird Seat.”
If he helps Mitt win, he’s the hero. He’ll also be a check on Mitt, lest Mitt be less than a “HE-MAN” Conservative. If Mitt flounders, he’ll be told before 2016 to make some bullsh*t excuse about his family, and having to step down, and they “Privatizing” Ryan will be their candidate in 2016.
If Mitt plays along, then Ryan’s their choice in 2020.
If Mitt loses, it’ll be Mitt’s fault for being insufficiently Conservative, and Ryan becomes their “It Boy!” in 2016.
And if Ryan loses in either 2016 or 2020, it’ll be because Ryan, that RINO, was insufficiently Conservative enough.
Conservatism never fails.
It can only be failed.
Trentrunner
Per Digby, the best-case scenario with this ticket is that awful Randian ideas are mainstreamed. (Even if RR loses.)
Villago Delenda Est
So sayeth the unrelenting scum that are the Villagers.
My nym. Again and again. Burn the Village to the ground, sell the Villagers children into slavery (not internships, although it’s practically the same thing) and salt the earth.
I’m reminded of Londo Molari’s instructions to the mob of Narn who are handed Lord Refa (the architect of the use of mass drivers on the Narn homeworld) that they can do whatever they want to the body, but don’t touch the head. It needs to be recognizable for display on a pike.
brent
Yeah. That is completely correct. I read that this morning and thought: what could Beutler possibly be thinking? Chances are that Obama will win handily and at least one Chamber of Congress will be majority Republican. There is no context in which they are going to give this President “running room” to do anything no matter how big his margin of victory or how clear the contrast. And, I might add, I think they are correct in that stance. They are the opposition party. It is their job to fight for the sort of Government they want. Compromise is certainly part of that in the best case scenario but they certainly don’t have any obligation to preemptively defer to the opposition party’s agenda.
jrg
Ryan has since changed his “plan” so that people can “keep Medicare”.
He’s going to run as a guy who wants to “give seniors more choices”, while at the same time, he’s going to get a non-stop media tongue bath for being a “clear eyed realist who knows we need to make hard decisions”.
He’s going to get credit for holding two different contradictory stances… And the media won’t say a thing, because they’ve spent the past 30 years giving Reaganomics (“less taxes, more free shit, whee!”) a free pass.
patrick II
I think this has been mentioned in previous threads — but Ryans’ proposal is not even a voucher (which would entitle you exchange for the full value of the product), it is a coupon. The government will give you a coupon for $7,000 off of your healthcare policy. If it costs $30,000 (as it can for a high risk policy), then that’s on you.
Brachiator
Maybe you need to stop talking to these people. They are not as sharp as they think they are.
Villago Delenda Est
@jrg:
If that were true, he’d be asking the parasite overclass to start ponying up more taxes.
But he’s not going to do that. He wants to cut the taxes of the “job creators” who have so decisively addressed our high unemployment rate.
Sometimes I just crack myself up.
Davis X. Machina
The RR ticket will win at least 50% of the over-60 vote. They did in ’04 (+8). They did in ’08, a wave election (+3), despite the fresh-in-the-memory push to privatize SS that happened in ’05-06.
Economic self-interest is not the only thing that drives voters.
Team Red skews old.
mb
Count me as one liberal not thrilled about the Ryan choice. I think he spices up the race in an unpredictable way, especially if Romney has the self assurance to allow Ryan to be the star that I’m afraid he can be.
But can he overcome the boundless failitude of Mitt? I remain optimistic that Mitt will manage to overcome any positives Ryan will bring to the campaign. But I’d rather have had Portman or Pawlenty (Mitt/Tim, just for the palindromic effect would have been fun.)
Elizabelle
@Brachiator:
Agreed!
mathguy
@Brachiator:
Absolutely. How is Ryan going to sell this plan, when people have already taken a massive dump on it? He doesn’t have the *wink, wink* sex appeal of the Princess of the North. I think Romney’s choice of VP mattered little to this election, and if so, only in a negative way.
Spaghetti Lee
What amazes me is that the cracks are already starting to show, within 24 hours of the pick. First, Romney said that he’s “not running on the Ryan budget” (whatever that means) and now it comes out that he’s criticized Obama for Medicare cuts that are also in the Ryan plan. These guys can’t even get past the starting line without tripping over their own feet.
I’m still a bit worried-anyone who has as many adoring fans in the news media as Ryan does is troubling, period. But I also think Mitt was forced to pick Ryan somewhat against his will, and it’s going to show while they’re on the campaign trail.
cathyx
@jrg: I wouldn’t trust a proven liar who will say anything to get elected to not change his mind again once in office to cut it anyway.
lol
@Brachiator:
Ryan is the best choice in a pool of absolutely terrible options.
Who is a better pick that gets the base off Romney’s back but also doesn’t have the career sense to avoid boarding the Failboat? Rubio or Jindal would be hands down better choices but they’re not going to go down with the ship.
Kyle
There’s not much ‘care’ in it.
More like voucherdeath.
cmorenc
@taylormattd:
…which the internet tubes are rapidly destroying and transforming, in some aspects vastly better, in some aspects much worse. However, this is the last election where the traditional MSM retain at least a partial solid foothold, though they no longer have commanding mastery of the entire mountain like they did 20 years ago.
Good == blogs like Balloon Juice
Bad == evil sociopathic twits like Breitbart
jharp
Romney is already distancing himself from the Ryan budget.
And I like the pick. Clearly a desperation move.
Obama is gonna kick Romney’s ass.
WereBear
I still applaud the Ryan choice: for Democrats, it’s now going to be non-stop talking about those pesky details that are in the Ryan plan.
Previously, it would have been how bold and brave it was, and no one would let slip what was actually IN it.
aimai
@brent:
Yup, that was the dumbest thing since the last dumb “think” piece at TPM.
aimai
pluege
progressives should be happy about the ryan pick, not just because it should help romney lose, but just as importantly it should prevent obama from pursuing his dream of playing the baloney noble centrist trading social security and medicare for BS faux concessions from republican extremists. The ryan pick has stolen the ‘lets fix ss and medicare’ from obama, which will force obama to paint romney/ryam as destroying the programs, the antidote of which has to be obama promising not to touch them. (Of course if reelected obama will disavow all his campaign promises and set about “fixing” ss and medicare by destroying them anyway)
lol
@Spaghetti Lee:
THIS. Romney is still having to deal with his party in a position of weakness.
The way the announcement was done (hastily, middle of Olympics, interview cancellations, etc) reminds me of how the Palin pick went down. Romney’s trying to roll the hard six to change the conversation and Ryan at least is slightly more “vetted” than Palin having been in DC for a while.
Of course, that just means Team Obama has been more prepared for a Ryan pick longer than Romney has.
mb
@Davis X. Machina: Ryan’s budget is, imo, cynically structured to exempt the current seniors from the pain. Consequently, you’ve got folks like my sainted 88 year old mother voting for a plan that will deny me, her alleged favorite son, medicare coverage in my old age.
I think Dems need to find a way to defuse this effort. Some twist on the canard RE: “spending the next generation’s money.”
LosGatosCA
@c u n d gulag:
Exactly right. A close loss now, means Ryan is the front runner for 2016 when, historically, the party in the White House likely flips. And if they lose by a wide margin this year? They reach into the same grab bag and pull out another Reagan, Quayle, Bush II, Palin who can read the script more faithfully with Feeling.
Always another blank slate willing to suck up to their conservative Republican TeaBagger betters.
Davis X. Machina
@pluege:
And he will use drones to do it, mark my words.
Violet
I think the staffer didn’t quite get why this was a smart choice for Romney. He’s got the concept that Romney has to deal with the Ryan budget anyway, so why not hire the architect of it. But the underlying reason is, if Romney loses, he can blame Ryan. “The race was close until Ryan joined the ticket.” That kind of thing. It give Romney a big out, no matter what happens.
lol
@pluege:
Yep, any day now, Obama is going to start cutting Social Security and Medicare. Any day now…
Leadpipe
@jrg: We do need to make hard decisions. Apparerntly we need to decide to give even bigger tax breaks to the wealth inheritors.
jharp
@lol:
“Who is a better pick that gets the base off Romney’s back”
Why do you think Romney needs the base off his back? Those dumbfucks ain’t voting for Obama if he was running against Hitler.
Pawlenty was the choice of reason. The Ryan pick reeks of desperation. Not quite as desperate as the Palin choice but closer than it appears. Seriously, Medicare vouchers?
Mr Stagger Lee
@Davis X. Machina: And skews WHITE!!!! I don’t think some of them want to die in the next few years with a NiCLANG in the office.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Most of hte Villager reaction I’ve seen to Ryan (and I’ve been avoiding it) is of the Saletan variety: Paul Ryan is Very Serious. Some is of the deluded Beutler (why is he a “stunt stand-in”?) variety: This Will Make The Election About Clear Choices! Ryan is as much a con-man as Walker. but there has been more discussion of hte risks of the Ryan plan than I’d expected. We’ll see how it shakes out. I retain my minimum high regard for the intelligence and awareness of the voters who will decide this election, and Ryan is a good salesman when that group and Cokie Roberts and David Gregory are the customers; but Ryan is also an arrogant ideologue. He won’t full Gingrich “wither on the vine”, but he might get epistemic closure’d after a few weeks of hearing about how bold he is. Combine that with ads in Florida and NV with Romney talking about how the solution to the housing crisis is just to let the foreclosure process run its course, and things look as grim for Willard as they did a weeks ago.
lol
@mb:
Doesn’t exempt enough of them. (55 and up is exempt I think?)
Elderly voters aren’t going to change their votes either way. People in their 40s and 50s who are just starting to think hard about retirement are very persuadable though.
cyntax
Certainly the administration would have tried to tie Romney to this plan, but now Romney’s connected a number of those dots for them. As other posters have mentioned, Romney’s already trying to distance himself from the Ryan plan, but that will, I think, stretch the credulity of people who don’t follow politics that closely: “Well, shucks, then why did Romney bring this Ryan guy on in the first place?”
And now there are two policy elephants in the room. Romney has to keep distancing himself from his own healthcare plan, while at the same time distancing himself a bit, but not too far for his base, from Ryan’s plan. Maybe this makes Ryan the best pick of a bad bunch, but I’m not seeing it as “smart” yet.
Oh, and we could always bring up the income taxes again.
Violet
@mb:
It’s easily reframed as: “Why would young workers continue to pay for you to have Medicare when they get nothing themselves? That system won’t last very long.”
People understand that concept because it makes sense. They know that if they were young workers, they wouldn’t like that system either. So that means seniors can see that in a very short time, Medicare will go away. No one will be willing to pay for it.
Easy, easy, easy to explain.
Baud
The problem the GOP will have with selling the Ryan budget is that Romney is still at the top of the ticket. Anyone think Romney can sell something like this to the portion of the American people who aren’t corporations?
PeakVT
Fallows passes along one Ryan policy stance that sane people might agree with.
I do not expect the count of such polices to significantly exceed one.
Baud
@PeakVT:
But:
lol
@jharp:
Have you been watching the last week?
Compare to 2008. A very divisive hard fought primary for Obama. Lots of pressure to pick Clinton. And he just went and made the VP pick he thought made sense for him, the general election and the eventual administration. Obama dealt with the party from a position of confidence and strength.
Today, Romney *still* feels insecure with his base, months after he wrapped up the nomination. They said jump and he said “how high?” It’s desperate, like you said.
Why is he still insecure? There could be lots of reasons. Sure, lots of teabaggers will vote for him regardless, but they’re probably not knocking doors or making phone calls or telling their friends. They’ll show up on election day and pull the lever for him and that’s it.
cyntax
@PeakVT:
So Romeny’s definitely not winning Florida?
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear:
Well, along with OvenMitt’s brilliant hiring record, and his dramatic, brave release of his tax returns for the last 10 years last week.
gelfling545
Perhaps, though, it might put an end to the nonsense that the GOP lost through not being conservative enough. Maybe?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PeakVT: Huh. I wonder if the Diaz-Balarts will mention that anywhere in the Spanish language press
trollhattan
BTW, is Ryan still denying Rand 3x before the cock crows to placate the gawd-botherers? Seem to recall him trying to unravel the whole make-staffers-read-Atlas-Shrugged thing.
PeakVT
@cyntax: We can hope. I suspect the Obama campaign has already sent up the smoke signals indicating that some outside group should cut the obvious campaign commercial.
Bruce S
Funny thing is that Ryan’s 2005 Social Security privatization scheme would have, in effect, put the entire stock market – i.e. control of “the means of production” – under management of an agency of the federal government by 2050. Strange but apparently true – no American politician in recent history, not even Bernie Sanders, has put forward a proposal that would as effectively “socialize” the economy as Paul Ryan! Oh yeah – a massive tax increase was also necessitated by that crackpot scheme.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/11/paul-ryans-non-budget-policy-record-in-one-post/
GregB
@PeakVT:
I give it about 2 days before Ryan is forced to disavow these votes publicly. Romney needs Florida.
lol
Well, if anyone was wondering why Pawlenty didn’t get picked, this deer in the headlights moment this morning might explain why.
Dennis SGMM
Hopefully, some of you can help me to understand the strategy behind the Ryan pick. What I don’t quite understand is why Romney didn’t choose a governor who would be able to help him carry a contested state. The Ryan Plan was going to be hung around Romney’s neck anyway, the teahaddis will vote for him simply because he’s not That One, and having Ryan on the ticket gets him nothing but joined at the hip to that odious little peckerhead’s “Plan.”
Brachiator
@lol:
Agree that this mollified the base. But a number of independents, including people I personally know who voted for Obama but who prefer Romney, were absolutely convinced that Mittens was only giving lip service to wingnuts, but would govern independently of them.
The selection of Ryan not only undermines this delusion, but also reinforces the idea that Romney is a political weakling who will eagerly bow to the will of the right wing extremists in the GOP.
The Democrats should broadly hint that the Tea Party has already picked Romney’s cabinet for him.
PeakVT
@lol: That is great. LoL-worthy, even.
Baud
@lol:
I don’t like Stephanopoulos, but he did that perfectly.
navigator
The narrative of the defeated, extrenist GOP will have to be pushed constantly after this election. The media want to be on the winning side, so the Ds need to beat on the Rs every day. The President has seen the light, and Reid is making hopeful noises. Revise the filibuster, cut the Rs out, and remind everyone who complains that it’s the will of the people being done – those in opposition are the Rejected Extremists. That’s how you define an opposition for the long term.
Bubblegum Tate
@Baud:
Jesus, is that Mitt’s attempt at pandering to Christians via metaphor? What a pile of failure.
Mike E
@WereBear: David Frum agrees with you. On Press the Meat he astutely pointed out any media time deflected away from the Obama economy gives the president the opening he needs to hammer rMoney/rAyn on their “details.”
Obama moves the pawn to the 11th level and sez, “Check.”
WereBear
My flabber is gasted. Proof, if more was needed, that people don’t vote on policy?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
22over7
@Mike E:
That’s interesting. The press has to be bored by now, and the convention is still two weeks away. So all they have to discuss is Ryan. Lots and lots of interesting details about Ryan. If Obama’s people aren’t on top of this I’ll eat my tinfoil hat.
WereBear
@Mike E: The feeling is not mutual when it comes to David Frum that A-hole.
I don’t understand how he can see the pitfalls of Republican current policy so clearly; and yet declare he’s still going to vote R.
Mike E
@WereBear: Well, him and George Oxymoron Will will share a teary moment in some green room, then sally forth. Thinking-man repubs and all that…
Brachiator
This sounds like progressive purity trolling.
I get DougJ’s continual bashing of centrists. But here’s the facts. Liberals and outright progressives have a hard time getting people to vote for them. And while a lot of progressive ideas sound right and proper and humane, instead of being able to propose workable policy, they fall back on “Just do what some Canadians or some Europeans did or thought about doing.”
Meanwhile the Tea Party rangled enough support to take over the GOP, and form the strong core of congressional obstructionism. And while some keep insisting that the GOP is old and is marginalized, it is interesting to note how young much of their leadership is.
And lurking in the shadows is Ron Paul and his odd appeal to young libertarian wannabes.
Shorter, the Villager perspective and the centrist bashing is blind to the larger political reality.
WereBear
LOL, such is how I will think of him from now on!
Constance Reader
” If Obama wins, it will mean that the Kenyan soshulist had the sense to tack to the center…and he better stay there.”
Um, why? He can’t run for re-election again. If he stays on his current course, what possible incentive can the people offer to make him change? The Dems in congress could ignore him to save their own asses, but Obama himself would face no political consequences.
JustAnotherBob
@patrick II:
This needs to be pounded into the heads of all the 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-somethings that, in their heart of hearts, know that they are unlikely to reach their senior years as a rich person.
If they aren’t making $250k a year, have a net worth of $5+ million they are the people who will need the safety net to keep their retirement years from being miserable.
This is a message that can peel some of the <60 white guy votes away from RR.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Considering Mittens couldn’t wait 24 hours to run form the Ryan plan I think your Dem friend is concern trolling Doung.
xian
@jrg: plus it’s a bipartisan plan because Fuck Ron Wyden.
xian
@Bruce S: omg, the neocons are still deep-cover trotskyites!
Lihtox
@LosGatosCA: As long as this country lacks a sane second party that can win elections, our democracy is in a state of crisis. We cannot depend on a single party to run this country, even if it is a progressive one. We progressives have lost our ability to vote against corrupt or ineffective Democrats, and this is terrible.
If we’re still talking about Democrats vs. Tea Party in 2016, we are in really bad shape. I don’t know what happens otherwise. Maybe some rich people come to their senses and force the GOP back towards the center, or maybe some Blue Dogs get together with the few remaining moderate Republicans and form a “third way” party with enough star power to win seats and make a go at the Presidency. But God help us if the Tea Party doesn’t die soon.
Mike E
@Lihtox: Who are these “Democrats” you speak of?
WaterGirl
Since Team Romney lies and makes stuff up out of thin air, and the so-called media let him get away with it, I am not at all confident that anyone who is currently undecided is going to be able to make a decision based on the information that is out there.
If you’re not sufficiently clued-in, you don’t even know which sources to trust, so even people who are trying to figure it out will likely come away with “I don’t know who to believe”.
At that point, I think the decision of who to vote for will come down to a gut feeling of who seems more trustworthy, or likable, or even who is winning.
Right now I see the Obama team hitting hard with facts and information about Romney and Ryan, but what I really think they’re aiming for is to leave Romney & Ryan damaged in such a way that the decision doesn’t need to be about “facts”, it will be about Romney’s negatives.
bemused
@WereBear:
Poor Frum, bless his heart, he is holding on to the dream that his party will reject the boorish tea party types and the Republican “intellectuals” will regain power where they only speak of their ‘up with the wealthy, screw everyone else’ agendas in quiet rooms. I think he is going to be a doddering old man by the time that happens if it ever does. Hope always springs eternal for Republicans.
LosGatosCA
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Could be concern trolling, or given the Democrats history to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, just another typical miscalculation of political events.
I’m not sure when the last time some Democrat not named Clinton or Obama knew how to recognize and exploit conservative Republican TeaBagger weakness. They’ve been bitch slapped so many times they spend half their life just covering up, flinching, waiting for the next beat down.
eyelessgame
@xian:
I’ve realized for a while that Atlas Shrugged is powerful Communist propaganda – if anything could actually push America into a proletariat revolution, it would be the adoption of Ayn Rand’s philosophy by enough of the capitalists and bourgeoisie.
LosGatosCA
@WereBear:
Tribal, party loyalty is at the level of blood ties. It’s proven that even parentally abused, molested children will be mentally healthier in the long run if they can repair their relationship – if the abuse/molesting stops. The bonds are very, very tight.
Not quite the same for politics, but close. The typical party loyalist needs something earth shattering to make them become disillusioned and switch parties: a Depression, WWII, Civil Rights (on both sides), Vietnam, 15% inflation, 10% unemployment, etc. Logic, facts, reasoning, even self-interest are generally no match for the strength of identity within the family, tribe, party.
Amir Khalid
@Dennis SGMM:
I don’t think there is a strategy. If I understand Nate Silver’s blog post, there’s no real tactical or strategic upside to Ryan as a running mate. I think picking Ryan is just a bit of empty bravado, an attempt to look bold and assertive, that’s eventually going to bite Mitt in the ass.
MikeJ
@WereBear:
If Frum says he’s going to vote for a Democrat, he’s just another Democrat criticizing Romney. More people will pay attention to him if he’s a Republican who doesn’t like Romney.
Frum is most interested in having people pay attention to him. He’s Harold Ford.
Ruckus
@Davis X. Machina:
People are creatures of habit. Old people (like me) have had bad habits(voting rethug) for a long time. There was a time 40-50 years ago when the rethugs sounded much more normal and the D’s were the war mongers, even as they worked for rights. A lot of people voted(hindsight, incorrectly) rethug because it seemed like an overall better choice.
A bad habit not corrected is still a habit. Include our wonderful MSM and you have a problem.
We need to break those bad habits, not just wait for them to die off.
Bobby Thomson
I had the same reaction reading that column by
BroderBeutler.OzoneR
@Violet:
What choice would we have? The thing I noticed about my grandparents and my aunts, they have the “fuck you, I got mine, you’re on your own” mentality.
lol
@OzoneR:
But they’re not going to dominate the electorate for very long. Within 10 years, it’s going to predominantly be people who are going to get Medicare coupons when they grow old and they’re not going to be very inclined to let the elderly freeloaders have “their benefits”.
Violet
@OzoneR:
It’s about pointing out that the elders are at the mercy of the rest of the electorate keeping their cushy benefits going. Makes a lot of sense that people who don’t benefit won’t vote for other people to keep those benefits. Whether it’s easy to implement isn’t the point. It makes sense and older people can understand it easily. It’s easy to explain.
OzoneR
@lol:
No, but how much damage can they cause in the meantime.
OzoneR
@Violet:
How? You think there is a politician in this country who will take their Social Security and Medicare away?
Not even Paul Ryan will, that’s why his plan cuts it off for people under 55.