Paul Ryan: We Have to Lower the Deficit

After passing a $1+ trillion dollar tax cut, speaker Ryan said that the deficit must be reduced through cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security (although he states that Social Security will have to wait for a future Republican Congress because it can't be done through reconciliation).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-republican-welfare-cuts-20171206-story.html

He sucks. His party sucks. They want to lower the deficit.......no tax cuts for the wealthy/corporations.

Wow Nobody saw this one coming **rolls eyes**. These shameless scum bags are the same. I do agree with their thought process of getting people to work instead of mooching welfare, but some are disabled/unable to work. Those that can work, should be working, and should be guaranteed a job...any job doesn't matter what it is. In the US, if someone wants to work, he should be guaranteed that, plus a wage that allows him to live properly, ie not like a slave. The fact that the elite/establishment are robbing our productivity and not giving us back in return whats rightfully ours is laughable.

I say it a billion times, but we need to get rid of patents/IP protections. Its the best way to kill off the corporate influence in politics is to take away their power.

No the best way to kill off corporate and/or wealthy influence is to remove money from politics. Period.

take away the patents and corporations won't have the money to spend on politics. To solve the problem you kill off the root, not the branch.

I know you have a hard on for patents but there are many many corporations that are successful that invent nothing. So.....in short....you're wrong.

30% of all US jobs is a result of patents, from the USPTO website. Thats just jobs, not the economy where its even higher percentage..I believe the number is closer to 40%. So yeah, there are businesses that are successful without patents, but they are just small businesses.

Why is Paul Ryan being such an asshole? He's getting his corporate tax breaks that are supposed to "bring in more tax revenue" as McConnell has said. That would naturally lower the deficit if it wasn't bullshit/phony economics. Instead he and other republicans have decided that hurting the poor and middle class so the rich can get richer is the best course of action.

Republicans as a party have decided that giving the rich tax breaks is the single most important thing for the survival of their party and it's okay to squeeze everyone else in the process. Honestly **** republican politicians and **** their supporters.

I would support a $20 an year tax on every american, from the poor to the rich to fund political campaigns at every level. First they should get rid of the special interest and corporate lobbying completely from washington though.

"no, you don't understand, we HAVE to reduce the healthcare of the elderly!"

God, remember this?

did the USPTO murder your parents or something?

@comp_atkins: I'm just asking for a fair economy based on real free market principles. Nobody is protected, everyone is competing to survive. This patent system is the biggest form of welfare in the history of the world. And conservatives complain about left social welfare. The monstrosity of the government protected patent system is on a different level than all the subsidies and welfare programs that the poor get.

Let's call the patent/IP system what it is: a socialist communist scam.

None of the far right nutjobs in this board or the so called centrists will seriously debate this with me though. Funny how jacanuck and n64dd disappear when I mention the socialist patents scam.

@Serraph105: "Why is Paul Ryan being such an asshole?"

That really boils down to whether or not he believes his own BS. The more I watch this play out, the more I'm inclined to conclude 'no'.

Which would cynically mean the answer is money and he's selling his countrymen out.

Don't pat yourself on the back too hard, they both disappear whenever they are even asked to back up their statements.

Also are you against a patent/IP system in general or just the one we currently have? Because the patent/IP system does help smaller businesses defend against large corporations from time to time.

They're going to cut Social Security, a thing many Americans pay into.

Then they have the audacity to borrow that money as well.

I mean he can't believe his own bs. If he really believed this giant tax cut would end up raising more revenue for the government he wouldn't believe that the deficit needed further shrinking because the tax cut would be shrinking it. Am I wrong? Maybe you could say he doesn't think it shrinks the deficit as much as it should, but I'm just arguing over semantics because of course he knows the tax cut is blowing up the deficit.

@Serraph105: Yes, he's twisted his logic so much it's hard to believe the cognitive dissonance necessary to believe all his contradictions doesn't crack his skull.

Republicans know this won't stimulate the economy. They know that when you give tax breaks to the rich, they just keep the money. They don't care. All they care about is pleasing their wealthy donors.

What boggles my mind is the poor working class people in red states who keep voting for this crap. They are voting against anything that would be in their own economic interests.

I guess it's a combination of the Southern Strategy where Republicans trick them using social issues, and the "temporarily disadvantaged Millionaire" mindset many of them have. Spoiler alert: you're never going to be rich. The US is one of the least upwardly mobile countries in the developed world. Stop voting against things that would help you, and vote for the rich to pay their fair share.

It seems the self deception (intentional or otherwise) is catching in the GOP ranks.

This article is about Susan Collins potentially changing her vote if her amendments aren't included in the tax bill, but what caught my attention is the following quote:

"There's a real fear that the tax bill is going to trigger a 4% cut in Medicare," Collins added. "I am absolutely certain that 4% cut in Medicare that I mentioned will not occur. I have it in writing from both the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and also Senator Mitch McConnell."

innovation is neither easy nor cheap. what is a business's motivation for spending potentially billions on new innovations only to have them reverse engineered, and sold at 1/4 the price a year later by competitors who did not make the initial investments to develop the product in the first place?

without the reward of profit, what is the motivation to risk on innovation?

if everyone decides to go the copy and sell route, where does innovation come from?

This entire scenario would be laughable if it wasn't true. It feels like we are living in a bizarro universe. But this is MY country's leadership. Actively working to ruin my life and those much worse off than me. The subtext is obvious and barely concealed:

Continue to give every possible advantage to the wealthy while working to eliminate the middle class.

The poor get poorer and the rich get richer seems to apply vociferously to the U.S.A.

It can be argued I'm sure that both liberals and conservatives have been working in the service of the bourgeoisie for decades. But never do I remember such blatant disregard for the working man. Such obvious and stated opposition to the goals of the average American.

I'm not feeling particularly generous this morning so I'm just going to say that this is totally what people voted for when they chose to vote for republicans. They may not have paid attention enough to know it, but that doesn't mean it isn't what they voted for.

And Ryan is correct. The Obama era is over.

@Jacanuk: Yeah, we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem!

Indeed.

Some of the most expensive social programs need to be cut, we did fine before and will do fine afterwards.

Me talking to my far-left friends: Hey, guys, I know capitalism isn't the greatest and I'm not defending everything about it, but it's still a functional and relatively equitable method of distributing resources. It just needs a few tweaks now and then, a good social safety net, robust education, and a tax code that doesn't put an undue burden on lower earners.

*walks into this thread*

Okay, down with the Bourgeoisie!

Or we don't lower tax on the wealthy and close the loop holes.

Thats what you call a free market. Copying/improving constantly new ideas and innovations without government interventions. Let the free market decide, end of story. The government should remove all regulations regarding the free market, except when it has tragedy of the commons effects. For example if removing regulations causes the local water supply to become toxic, that is an example of tragedy of the commons. Over fishing is another example, and so is climate change. Those types of scenarios are the only things that need regulation.

As to your profit example, how did people become wealthy in the old days before this whole patent system scam came to be?? The greatest driver of innovation is the internet, it is humanitys greatest achievement to date. And something that was created by a government worker.

Apple was the first big name in the phone market. And still has a healthy share. And I hate you for making me defend Apple.

Can we not discuss intellectual property rights in a thread about the deficit?

Smartphone marked... Nokia says hello otherwise. :P

Also I thought the deficit didn't matter...

I agree we need to lower the deficit.

But how about instead of the solution you are proposing you instead,

Heavily get rid of corporate welfare, Dramatically cut military spending, End the Wars, End the Drug War, Legalize/Tax/Regulate Drugs, End the Prison Industrial Complex, Raise Taxes on the Rich

In an ideal system, people should see a return on the taxes they pay, that should go to things like social security, medicare, infrastructure spending, ect.

Never going to happen.

This is America we're talking about here, the country that thinks having more guns is better than having more healthcare.

If you have more good guys with guns, less people get hurt. Which means less need for healthcare. Am I doing it right?

And yeah, the corruption... That is the sad part :(

And people in prison... the more the merrier.

@horgen: Hey now I'm not a Republican....never said the deficit didn't matter.

I know... But that seems to be the thing for the Republican Party.

Biggest flip floppers in history. All they care about is getting elected to pander to the wealthy. Sad thing is the less wealthy individuals support these people while they are being oppressed by them and get in their own way of achieving a comfortable life.

i don't think you recognize the world we are actually living in.

again, why should a business owner invest significant time and effort ($$) only to give that effort away? because he's a nice guy? it's not "letting the market decide". such a market would produce a flood of bottom feeders trying to leech off the innovations of others with no one really able to take the risk it innovate greatly.

as for open source, android was made open source by a company whose profits were protected elsewhere. if google's existence relied on android's source code do you think it would be given out freely? how would the developers who put their time and effort into improving it feed their families?

i have no problems with open source products existing but realize that people who contribute to these things generally have other income streams so they can give away the IP from their side projects.

Jesus H Christ, these fracking people don't even have basic logic.

We need to save money *adds to deficit* we need to reduce the deficit *screws over the people*