Day 707

Day 707 Friday December 14, 2018     884 Days to Go

DATELINE: Mexico City

For those of you who have been reading my screeds you probably know I’m in Mexico right now. We got back to Mexico City from visiting various Aztec and pre-Aztec sites in the area a few days ago. Yesterday, we visited the ruins of the major Aztec temple in central Mexico City, The Temple Mayor. It was rediscovered in the 70s and they tore down a city block above it to expose some of what is left. This was the center of the universe and even the remains are very impressive. I was here in the late 80s or early 90s and there was a little bit to see then, but not much. Last year they opened a new museum on the site and it is fabulous, (if you like ancient Aztec stuff).

In my room last night I ran across this article:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/10/17929460/paul-ryan-speaker-retiring-debt-deficits-trump 

It outlines Paul Ryan’s political legacy as it relates to his economic ideas and fiscal policies. Anyone who has read my screeds probably knows that I think very little of the boy-wonder. Anyone who creates a document called a budget and doesn’t put in any numbers except page numbers is an idiot, and Paul Ryan qualifies. Remember when Obama went to Baltimore to see the Republicans who had gathered there? John Boehner was holding Paul’s budget to his chest like some Hasidic rabbi holding the Torah. Fox carried the proceedings live, because it was 400 some odd Republicans versus the black President. Obama took a copy of Ryan’s budget, opened randomly to a page and read “an item.” It was a wishy washy statement of what, I guess, Ryan would like to see done – sort of. After Obama read the paragraph he looked up and said, “You can’t govern based on this,” or words to that effect. He was met with dumb struck silence. It seemed to me that no one had bothered to open the big government document and look at what was in it. Shortly thereafter Fox found more important things for the girls with blond hair, short skirts, and tight blouses to report on.

The Vox article lays out Ryan’s economic legacy:

– Leaves an increased annual deficits over three years by 80%. This in a time of economic growth. (btw When an economy is doing well, government deficits should come down, but not with fiscally responsible Paulie at the wheel.)

– Will increase the national deficit over ten years by $1.5 trillion.

– And wants to make those changes permanent so the deficit will increase by $4.0 trillion instead of the $1.5.

This from a man who ran on cutting the deficit and reigning in spending. When asked about it Ryan said essentially, “Yeah, I wish we could have done something about that.”

Done something about it? You were in charge! You idiot. He’s acting like he was watching a parade go by, and he was standing on the sidewalk waving a flag. He was on the front of the beer truck leading the parade, which wandered aimlessly around the halls of Congress.

884 Days to Go

PS The kid at the center of the universe.