Paul Krugman: After the Flimflam

It has been a big week for budget documents. In fact, members of Congress have presented not one
but two full-fledged, serious proposals for spending and taxes over the next decade.

Before I get to that, however, let me talk briefly about the third proposal presented this week — the
one that isn’t serious, that’s essentially a cruel joke.

Way back in 2010, when everybody in Washington seemed determined to anoint Representative
Paul Ryan as the ultimate Serious, Honest Conservative, I pronounced him a flimflam man. Even
then, his proposals were obviously fraudulent: huge cuts in aid to the poor, but even bigger tax cuts
for the rich, with all the assertions of fiscal responsibility resting on claims that he would raise
trillions of dollars by closing tax loopholes (which he refused to specify) and cutting discretionary
spending (in ways he refused to specify).