Skip Navigation
Conor Clarke

Conor Clarke - Conor Clarke is the editor, with Michael Kinsley, of Creative Capitalism. He was previously a fellow at The Atlantic and an editor at The Guardian. More

Conor Clarke is the editor, with Michael Kinsley, of Creative Capitalism, an economics blog that was recently published in book form by Simon and Schuster. He was previously a fellow at The Atlantic and an editor at The Guardian. He is also on Twitter.

Paul Ryan's Crazy Budget Graph

By Conor Clarke
Apr 1 2009, 12:47 PM ET Comment

I'm still reading the Republicans' alternative budget (pdf), but I did want to highlight this graph from Republican Paul Ryan's Wall Street Journal op-ed on the subject, because it's pretty stupid:


paul ryan budget.gif

This graph supposedly compares "Democratic Budgets" and the Republican Alternative based on spending as a percentage of GDP between 1980 and 2080. As you can see, Democratic spending is, as they say, off the charts after about 2060.

Now I think it's perfectly fine for Paul Ryan and the House Budget Committee's Republican staff to make whatever crazy assumptions they want about Democratic spending. No one has to take them seriously. But I don't think they can say that this is "based on CBO's Long-Term Alternative Fiscal Scenario" unless the CBO has actually done an analysis that runs through 2080. As far as I can tell, the Congressional Budget Office hasn't done any such analysis. But they have scored the Obama budget through 2019, and it looks like this:


500 cbo on revenue.jpg

As near as I can tell, Paul Ryan and his staff just took the CBO projections that ended in 2019 and drew a random line, extending upward at about a 45 degree angle, until 2080. There's no real attempt to make it look scientific.

Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Know Your Internet: What Is Pinterest and Why Should I Care? Know Your Internet: What Is Pinterest and Why Should I Care?
A Lonely Widow's Conscience Helped Gay Marriage Pass in Washington A Moving Speech from a Washington Legislator
How Did Bill Parcells Not Make the Pro Football Hall of Fame? How Did Bill Parcells Not Make the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
Sarah Palin Brings Out the Barbs at CPAC Sarah Palin Ends CPAC With Rousing Speech
Do Mothers Matter? Do Mothers Matter?

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Special Report
The Civil War National Portrait Gallery The Civil War
A 150th-anniversary commemorative issue, with Atlantic work by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and others. Read more ›

Just In

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

The Civil War, Part 3: The Stereographs

Feb 10, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)