“Speaker Ryan”‘s press secretary, y’all. Note the timestamp: HE’S NOT GIVING UP HIS BIG LIE!
Weird trend: successful NYC/DC dwellers mocking an extra $1K in Americans’ pockets.
— AshLee Strong (@AshLeeStrong) February 5, 2018
$1.50/wk * 52wks = $78.00 https://t.co/f2qUuZJGhd
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 5, 2018
Actually, since $1.50 is roughly the price of a small fries at McDonalds, I think we have our campaign slogan here: "Let them eat French fries!" https://t.co/c2TO6JuPbF
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) February 4, 2018
Though, despite “presidential” precedent, looks like the Grey Lady *still* won’t let Krugman use the word bullshit on its website…
… Should we keep giving Ryan grief over that tweet? Yes, we should – and not just because it shows how out of touch he is. By highlighting the tiny tax cut some workers will get as if that were the point and main result of a bill that blows up the deficit by more than $1 trillion, he helps illustrate the bait-and-switch at the core of the whole G.O.P. agenda.
For tax cuts aren’t free. Sooner or later, the federal government has to pay its way. Even if you don’t think the budget deficit is currently a big problem, except under very special circumstances anything that reduces revenue will eventually have to be offset by later tax increases or spending cuts…
So Ryan is patting himself on the back for giving a schoolteacher some French fries. What’s he planning to take away?
Well, we know the answer: Republicans constantly use the alleged dangers of budget deficits to argue for sharp cuts in social programs. You might have thought they’d lay off that rhetoric for a while after passing an unfunded $1.5 trillion tax cut, but in fact they barely paused; even at the height of the tax “reform” debate, people like Orrin Hatch declared that we can’t “spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves.” Right now they’re dragging their feet on funding for community health centers, complaining about the cost…
It’s such an obvious scam that you might think either that its perpetrators would get embarrassed or that the public would get wise. But the first won’t happen. The second – well, we’ll see in November.
They’re Freedom Caucus fries. https://t.co/DbH3dcFa3Y
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 4, 2018
Paul Ryan: Can I take away all of your healthcare?
Me: ummm, no
Paul Ryan: [discreetly sliding $1.50 across the table like he’s trying to bribe a bouncer] how about now
— Migrant Twerker (@SortaBad) February 3, 2018
Open Thread: Professor Krugman vs. Buck-Fiddy RyanPost + Comments (79)