Within the proposal, Ryan addresses virtually all aspects of fiscal policy spanning entitlements, defense spending, and corporate and individual tax rates (among others).
He also reminds us that the debate that Washington characterizes in esoteric terms like "the debt ceiling," "sequestration," the "fiscal cliff" and "entitlements" is really about the day-to-day lives of real people and what kind of future is in store for them and their families.
Meanwhile, little has been done to tackle the longer-term fiscal problems, especially entitlement spending.
Revenue lost from the Bush tax cuts will indeed have to be recaptured, but the fiscal threat from entitlement programs functioning normally is 10 times as large.
And he has made the fiscal burden of entitlement worse by increasing the prescription-drug benefit in the Medicare system again without undertaking meaningful reform.The other problem is social policy.
This election has to be about those hard choices, smart investments and shared sacrifices — how we set our economy on a clear-cut path of near-term, job-growing improvements in infrastructure and education and on a long-term pathway to serious fiscal, tax and entitlement reform.
Yes, naturally, this next election has to be about finding a "long-term pathway to serious fiscal, tax and entitlement reform," and to get there, we need "presidential leadership in the next four years of the highest caliber".
"One of the things that's frustrating is when you get to very large debates about the fiscal cliff and entitlement reform, often children's advocates and women's advocates are sidelined," O'Leary said.
"Well, we have features that we're for, whether it's balanced budgets, whether it's fiscal prudence or reforming entitlements," he said.
The first is that there is a latent but potentially vast divide between the grass roots and the conservative elite on the United States' most important fiscal issue — the twin entitlements of Social Security and Medicare.
