Louis Woodhill doesn't much like the Paul Ryan plan because of "static analysis," here, but fails to note that Ryan's is an intellectual and political concession to the status quo. This has been the GOP's problem for decades, and why we perceive the party to be "moderate" and a paler reflection of liberalism. Why vote for that when you can get the real thing from Democrats?
Unsurpisingly, support for the Ryan plan is overwhelming in the over-55 set, for whom the plan changes nothing. Those who stand to lose under it, however, and lose votes, understandably don't like it. America's problem has been and remains addiction to socialism. That Ryan is trying to chip away at this is really what drives liberals crazy, but America simply cannot afford to continue spending $30,000 per year subsidizing every retiree in the country.
Woodhill unintentionally provides support for this point in his brief history of economic growth, which should be a wake-up call for conservatives who need to re-assess their past support for Bush era Republicanism.
Average real annual rates of growth by decade:
1930s: 2.71 percent
1940s: 5.57 percent
1950s: 3.50 percent
1960s: 4.20 percent
1970s: 3.18 percent
1980s: 3.24 percent
1990s: 3.40 percent
2000s: 1.67 percent
"This last number is shocking. Our real growth rate in the 2000s was less than half of the average (3.5 percent) from 1930 to 2000, and it was 38 percent lower than that of the 'Great Depression' decade of the 1930s."
Yes, the 2000s, when George W. Bush out-liberaled the liberals and expanded government more than at any time since the Great Society programs of the 1960s, with his massive "drugs for seniors" program. Why, he even got liberals to vote for two wars at the same time. Talk about guns and butter.
No wonder Democrat liberals hate him. No wonder growth went nowhere.
