Well, he's lost my vote!

Not that I was ever going to vote for Mitt Romney anyway, but with the announcement of Paul Ryan as his running mate, I almost think that Romney has thrown in the towel.  Ryan, of course is most famous for pushing an austerity budget that would send in this country into economic ruin, while giving more tax cuts to the rich than Bush & Cheney ever dared to dream, all while, duh-da-daaaaa... ADDING to the deficit, according to the CBO.

Well done, Mitt.  Way to continue the Republican tradition of picking goofball VP's: Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin, and now Paul Ryan.

BTW...

If you ever hear a politician - of any party - tell you they that they're going to boost the economy AND lower the deficit, DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM. Seriously. They are lying to you. And I don't mean in the way that MOST politicians lie, while is more akin to exaggeration.  This is more like making a New Year's Resolution to both LOSE Weight AND GAIN Weight at the same time.

Quick refresher on fiscal policy:

While they can do each of these in a variety of fancifully named ways, the Government can only take two actions to shrink a deficit:

1) RAISE TAXES
2) CUT SPENDING

That's IT. And BOTH, will harm the economy.

The Government can only take two actions to boost the economy:

1) CUT TAXES
2) INCREASE SPENDING

That's IT. And BOTH, will add to the deficit.

Now the difference between the Left and Right boils down to a "debate" over which has the greater effect.  Which the Right has about as much of a leg to stand on as they do in the "debate" about Evolution, or the "debate" about Global Warming. But that's not even important! Because the difference between a person of average intelligence and a complete fucking moron?

Is realizing that you can't go in two directions at the same time!

AT BEST, if Keynes was WRONG, cutting both or increasing both, would just cancel each other out, right?  Deficit neutral, no effect on the economy one way or the other. So here's a test: Go find the most Conservative (in case you think this is just a Liberal thing) Economics professor you can find and ask them about the "balanced budget multiplier."

S/He'll tell you it's "positive 1."

Ask them to explain that.

They'll explain that if you raise taxes and raise spending (in unison) by "X" you will raise the collective income of the Country by "X", while if you lower taxes and lower spending (in unison) by "X" you will lower the collective income of the Country by "X.  Now that's from the Keynes MODEL, but it as undeniable as gravity. The fact is that austerity has precisely NO historical precedent IN ANY COUNTRY, EVER, of bringing about economic prosperity.

None. Zilch. Nada. Dick.

And either Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney KNOW this, and their telling the mother-whopper of all lies, insulting YOU in the process by assuming you have have NO FUCKING IDEA how a market economy functions. (Which in America, is a sadly SAFE bet, but it's every bit as insulting, even if you don't know it.) Or WORSE?

The don't know either.

And that, to me? Is the far more terrifying prospect. That these great buffoons are so out of touch with the needs of the country they are meant to govern, and so ignorant of the mechanisms governing the economy that they will be responsiable for, that they actually think that their bullshit ideas are going to work!  And in all seriousness folks, a person who doesn't understand these basic, simple concepts? SHOULD NOT be placed in charge of the biggest economy in the history of the world.

I've always said that Conservatives only come in two flavors, EVIL and STUPID. One's LYIN' and the other's BUYIN'.  By I had always assumed that it would at least be the LIARS leading the way, which is merely frustrating. Having the BUYERS lead? It downright terrifying.

So I'm going to refer back to a pearl of wisdom that Governor Romney gave us, back on the 2008 campaign trail. The issue of the day was [health care] but you could put almost anything of importance (like the economy or the budget?) into that variable, and I think both HIS point, and MINE will still stand:

"I don't want the people who managed the response to Hurricane Katrina managing [my health care]!"

~Mitt Romney, 2008

"Good point, Mitt! I don't want the Republicans managing [my health care] either!"

~Niceguy Eddie, 2008, 2012.

For the love of God, please vote for the guy who had the slightest, even the very slightest idea what's he's doing!