Our old pal Ryan Ellis at Americans for Tax Reform, who haunts Twitter under the ridiculous name Taxplaya and punctuates like e e cummings, asks: “i wonder what all the ‘conservatives’ [Ed: Sneer quotes his] like @KevinNR [Ed: That’s me] et al think now that we have a no-tax-hike balanced budget plan from paul ryan.”
Happy to answer. I think:
1. It hasn’t been enacted.
2. It doesn’t balance the budget: It adds $6 trillion to the debt.
3. It will probably raise taxes. Getting rid of the mortgage-interest deduction (which I endorse) is a half-trillion-dollar tax hike.
4. And, as always, I think Grover Norquist needs smarter help: The only thing Ryan Ellis gets right is that Paul Ryan is the guy behind this budget. Other than being wrong on every single factual question, Mr. Ellis’s analysis here is bulletproof.
Don’t get me wrong: I love the Ryan proposal. L-O-V-E it. But it isn’t a balanced budget. (It is a very good move toward one.) And getting rid of exclusions while lowering the tax rates is precisely the sort of tax reform I support, even if it means a net tax increase.