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You are here: Home / Economics / Fuck The Middle-Class / Blue in green

Blue in green

by DougJ|  April 28, 20142:22 pm| 42 Comments

This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class

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Paul Ryan fan fiction has become incredibly popular among national political reporters. But money talks and puff “journalism” walks:

If you don’t care even slightly about how Paul Ryan’s policy ideas will impact poor people then I really recommend that you read McKay Coppin’s new long Buzzfeed feature article about Paul Ryan’s newfound interest in poverty issues. Reporting? Check. Color? Check. Political context? Check. Great writing? Check. This piece has it all. Except for even a teeny tiny shred of insight into how Paul Ryan’s policy ideas will impact poor people. The article’s subhead says that Ryan is “trying to challenge the notion that his party is out of touch with poor people the old-fashioned way: by talking to some.” Perhaps one reason is that the more newfangled way of showing in touchness with the economically struggling — by advancing a policy agenda that would help them in concrete ways — is wildly out of step with Ryan’s basic ideology.

[….]

For example, what does Ryan’s budget mean for the poor? Well it turns out that the majority of his budget cuts come from programs that benefit poor people. He wants to reduce spending on poor people’s Medicaid benefits. And on their nutrition assistance. And on their college tuition assistance. And on their access to subsidized private health insurance. Ryan does cut some programs that aren’t aimed at helping low-income Americans, but mostly he cuts programs for the poor.

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Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    BGinCHI

    April 28, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    Shorter Paul Ryan: Fuck my mentor Jack Kemp.

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    Ryan does cut some programs that aren’t aimed at helping low-income Americans, but mostly he cuts programs for the poor.

    Of course, raising taxes on the parasite overclass is RIGHT OUT (insert clip of Elaine Benes pushing someone from Manhattan to Pennsylvania here)

  3. 3.

    gogol's wife

    April 28, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    I think this fits under the second category for the post. NewsMax headline — “Bob Schieffer: Romney Mulls Another Run.” Oh goody.

  4. 4.

    balconesfault

    April 28, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    Clearly Ryan’s policies will help the poor by providing them ample enough incentives to become rich that they shed the chains that bind them to serfdom and use their innate entrepreneurial talents to make enough money so that they benefit from Ryan’s and the GOPs agenda.

    At which time, of course, they will have ample resources to give back some of the fruits of Ryan’s policies to the GOP campaign coffers.

    After all … why would you want to help the poor when they’re actually poor? Much easier to just make it hard for them to vote.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    OT from Noisemax:

    Trump: NBA Will Oust Clippers Owner

    This from the guy who singlehandedly destroyed the USFL.

  6. 6.

    Jewish Steel

    April 28, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    Posted for truth.

  7. 7.

    Cacti

    April 28, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    Donald Sterling is a registered Republican.

    WaPo says this is unimportant because of reasons.

  8. 8.

    Belafon

    April 28, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    @balconesfault: What Ryan should do some day is offer himself as an example. “I got to where I am today thanks to benefits such as using my father’s SS after his death to go to college. Don’t let your children turn into me. Reject government spending on your children.”

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    @Cacti: There are always reasons. They can’t be articulated, but they’re there, by gum.

  10. 10.

    srv

    April 28, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    You have to focus on where the problem is, and it’s just that there are too many poors.

    We simply can’t afford the luxury of providing for all of them.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    @srv: Rethuglicans moan, and Rethuglicans bitch.
    Our rich are too poor and our poor are too rich.

  12. 12.

    jl

    April 28, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    Checked both links. I don’t get the buzzfeed piece. You got your Ryan hunting p r 0 n. Do Buzzfeeders care about that? But no Ryan PXwhatever beefcake. Who was that article written for?

  13. 13.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 28, 2014 at 2:47 pm

    Ryan basically wants the optics of his outreach to obfuscate his policy prescriptions. Not gonna happen. I don’t care well he plays the victim of the mean ol’ libtards.
    If he learns something AND applies it concretely, good on him.

  14. 14.

    catclub

    April 28, 2014 at 2:47 pm

    The Vox article title ‘Another credulous Paul Ryan article’

    is all you need to know. Ryan has most of them hypnotized.

  15. 15.

    Cacti

    April 28, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    There are always reasons. They can’t be articulated, but they’re there, by gum.

    Even in the BJ comment section, some concerned disciple of Broder said that we should be wary of condemning Sterling’s comments, because he was set up by a scheming hussy.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack

    April 28, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    For shame, DougJ. You have sullied a great song with the Ryan. I must now go listen to the entire album to soothe my nerves.

  17. 17.

    Waynski

    April 28, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    @Belafon: Beat me to it, although you should have added Charles Pierce’s classic line every time he writes about Ryan trying to cut the SS that Ryan benefited from while we were all paying for it, “You’re welcome, Dickhead!”

  18. 18.

    jl

    April 28, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    ” Rethuglicans moan, and Rethuglicans bitch.
    Our rich are too poor and our poor are too rich. ”

    They say our opportunity society’s so great, which
    lets the poor rise, but what fatcat will switch?

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: Yet again, changing the shitty policies won’t happen. They’ve got to find a new way to polish the turd so that voters will buy it.

    It’s always marketing fail with the GOP, never their product.

  20. 20.

    MattF

    April 28, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    @gogol’s wife: So… if Romney runs again, there’s this guy named Ryan who might possibly want to be his running mate. You think? Good thing Republicans are the ‘party of ideas’, since actual Republican politicians don’t seem to have any.

    ETA: Don’t forget that Romney’s ‘idea’ for combatting terrorism is
    ‘double Guantanamo’. That’ll work.

  21. 21.

    Cacti

    April 28, 2014 at 2:58 pm

    @Waynski:

    Beat me to it, although you should have added Charles Pierce’s classic line every time he writes about Ryan trying to cut the SS that Ryan benefited from while we were all paying for it,

    Or the fact that he’s been drawing a 6-figure public salary and benefits for the past 15-years.

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    @Cacti: The woman might be a scheming hussy, but it seems Sterling’s track record on comments predate the scheming hussy.

    So the scheming hussy can’t be the cause of all those comments. The scheming hussy may very well be working with material of which there is an ample supply readily available.

  23. 23.

    Chris

    April 28, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    The article’s subhead says that Ryan is “trying to challenge the notion that his party is out of touch with poor people the old-fashioned way: by talking to some.”

    The media will glory in talking about Ryan’s attempts to campaign and how brilliantly this “challenges” the “notions” of political Washington… and pay no attention to either 1) how his proposals would actually impact the poor and 2) how the poor are reacting to them.

  24. 24.

    Alex

    April 28, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    “Dog whistle… I’d never even heard the phrase before, to be honest with you.”

    -Paul Ryan, expecting people to take him seriously.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    @Alex: Sort of like that Georgia politician who never imagined that calling Barack Obama “uppity” might say a lot more about him than it does about Obama.

  26. 26.

    Cacti

    April 28, 2014 at 3:05 pm

    My favorite Paul Ryan moment was when Biden took him to the woodshed in their debate.

    The Villagers were flummoxed and quick to say that it didn’t really matter.

    Because the all knowing narrative was that Ryan is the GOP ideas guy, and Biden is dumb.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    April 28, 2014 at 3:08 pm

    trying to challenge the notion that his party is out of touch with poor people the old-fashioned way: by talking to some

    That doesn’t do anything of the sort. Republicans love talking to poor people, minorities, and generally anyone who disagrees with them. What they don’t do is to listen to what those people have to say in return. Doing that would be a genuinely novel approach.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    April 28, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    So the message Paul Ryan brings to the poor is “Fuck you”? Yeah, that’ll win them over.

  29. 29.

    jl

    April 28, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    @Cacti:

    Ryan IS the GOP ideas guy. But no good with numbers, and particularly concerned with truth in advertising. Which is the problem.

    And since those in the media who try to shape the knowing narrative are ignorant and lazy, and no good with numbers for some reason or other (they are inept at them, or too lazy to do the work, or too hard to get ratings with them, or something) anyone who knows more and is better with numbers, and who has the political chops to also shape the narrative, has to be discredited.

    So, Obama is ****, Biden is the crazy uncle in the attic, HRC is a strident castrating something or other… etc.

    Edit: of course, their method with Obama has to be coded carefully, hence the asterisks.

  30. 30.

    jake the anti-social socialist

    April 28, 2014 at 3:16 pm

    The thing you may be missing is that an awfully large part of Republican voters favor all the results of Ryan’s policies.

  31. 31.

    DougJ

    April 28, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    I don’t often get to do a Miles reference.

  32. 32.

    C.V. Danes

    April 28, 2014 at 3:22 pm

    The article’s subhead says that Ryan is “trying to challenge the notion that his party is out of touch with poor people the old-fashioned way: by talking to some.”

    Just lie about it. It’s worked so well in the past, so why change the strategy?

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    April 28, 2014 at 3:24 pm

    @DougJ:

    Heh. “Bitches’ Brew” should come up at some point.

  34. 34.

    J.D. Rhoades

    April 28, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    My favorite Paul Ryan moment was when Biden took him to the woodshed in their debate.

    The Villagers were flummoxed and quick to say that it didn’t really matter.

    Because the all knowing narrative was that Ryan is the GOP ideas guy, and Biden is dumb.

    I thought the narrative was that Ryan “wiped the floor” with Biden because Biden was “unserious.” At least that’s what they were saying down my way. Total malarkey, of course…

  35. 35.

    Trollhattan

    April 28, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    @J.D. Rhoades:
    That debate was a pleasure from start to finish, with the malarkey response the cherry on top.

    Well, the debate combined with Onion Joe’s Twitter feed. Teevee worth watching.

  36. 36.

    Phil Perspective

    April 28, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    @catclub: Don’t forget that Ryan had the head Vox’er swooning just a few years ago, even after Krgthulu exposed The Zombie-eyed Granny-starver as a fraud.

  37. 37.

    raven

    April 28, 2014 at 3:41 pm

    @DougJ: This whole thing makes me kind of blue.

  38. 38.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 28, 2014 at 4:14 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Hurting the poor is the point. Lowering taxes on the rich is a bonus. They didn’t give a damn about the deficit or link it to taxes at all when hurting the poor wasn’t being debated.

  39. 39.

    Chris

    April 28, 2014 at 4:23 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This.

    Though I think lowering taxes on the rich isn’t a bonus so much as a status symbol. It’s how the government proves that it understands who the real masters of the country are and shows them the proper deference. Symbols like that are hugely important – it’s why they hit the ceiling and break out Kristallnacht and invasion-of-Poland comparisons whenever someone suggests that their taxes should maybe go up to a point that’s still lower than what they were under Saint Reagan.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 28, 2014 at 7:15 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: You’re right. It’s never really about the budget deficit.

    It’s always about punishing the poor…who clearly are not suffering enough, yet.

  41. 41.

    James E. Powell

    April 28, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    We need to be very concerned; Paul Ryan is playing the same game that George W Bush played. Fourteen years later we are still trying to fix the things he broke. Some of the damage, Supreme Court, public education, will last beyond my lifetime.

    The corporate press/media are not only going to allow him to lie repeatedly, they are going to amplify and legitimize those lies. Just like with George W Bush.

  42. 42.

    redoubt

    April 29, 2014 at 9:16 am

    How “Freddie Freeloader” hasn’t come up yet when referring to the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver is a mystery to me.

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