Over the weekend, Mitt Romney announced that he selected Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate. Just about every commentator on the left and right, has hailed this as a bold move.
The left believes Romney made a tragic mistake selecting someone so "radical". The right believes that Romney made the right decision selecting someone so dedicated to "fiscal responsibility".
Both sides are wrong.
Ryan's so-called visionary / radical budget plan won't balance the budget until 2040. We had a balanced budget in 2000, yet the left thinks it's "radical" and the right thinks it's "bold" to wait 28 years to get America's fiscal house in order.
More importantly, during the Bush administration, Ryan was just another big spending politician.
Paul Ryan voted for Medicare Part D (the first new entitlement program since LBJ), No Child Left Behind (the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history), Bush's two Middle East Wars, and TARP to bail out the Wall Street con artists. To top it off, he helped torpedo Simpson-Bowles, which would have lowered the top personal tax rate to 23% and the top corporate tax rate to 25%.
Of course, Obama / Biden are much worse, with their failed "stimulus", ObamaCare, annual deficits of more than a trillion dollars forever, shutting down energy production in the U.S., crazy left-wing social engineering, and more big government crap being shoved down our throats than ever before.
I've voted in 8 Presidential elections. I voted for the GOP nominee 4 times and I've voted for third party / independent candidates 4 times.
Unfortunately, Obama / Biden are so bad that we really don't have a choice this year. I will be holding my nose while I cast my vote for the lessor of two evils once again.
But I just feel really dirty doing so.