Paul Ryan's Plan for a Debt-Free Nation

I have a dream.

I'VE just gotten back from a breakfast event this morning sponsored by the American Council for Capital Formation. The guest of honour was Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget committee and leading Republican policy wonk. Mr Ryan has received a great deal of attention for his ambitious plans to address America's long-term budget and health system difficulties, and he is now a central figure in ongoing debates over the debt ceiling. But less well known are his views on current macroeconomic policy. And that's unfortunate, because they're terrible.

BARACK OBAMA'S strategy on the long-term deficit has been, for the most part, to talk tough but waffle on the specifics in the hope that a better economic and political backdrop will present itself. Unfortunately for him, that approach allowed Republicans to lay down the first marker last week with a budget plan that slashes the deficit with savage cuts to entitlements and no increase in taxes.

FOR politicians, power is usually its own reward. But doing the right thing sometimes comes at the expense of power, which means they need other incentives, too. This seems to be the thinking behind the "FI$CY", awarded to policymakers who lead "on confronting our fiscal challenges."

Excellent post from Greg Ip on the strange notion of giving Representative Paul Ryan an award for commitment to deficit reduction:

WHEN Barack Obama created his deficit commission Kent Conrad, a Democratic senator named to the commission, gave it no more than 10% odds of success. And indeed, today just 11 of its 18 members voted for the deficit-reduction proposal tabled by its two chairmen this week, falling short of the 14 required for the full Congress to vote on it.