California Conservative

Almost 20 months ago, a friend told me that Paul Ryan was “the smartest man in DC on policy.” I took my friend at his word and looked for opportunities to see whether he’d showcase his policymaking abilities. It didn’t take long to get proof of his brilliance. I got that proof when I interviewed him about health care. Monday night, I watched Chris Matthews get schooled by Congressman Ryan about eliminating deficits while creating a prosperous economy.

Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard transcribed the econ lesson in this post. I agree with Noel when he said that Matthews was asking gotcha questions in hopes of getting Congressman Ryan to say something to hang around Republicans’ necks this fall. That didn’t happen. Instead, Congressman Ryan schooled Matthews on how to reduce the deficit. Here’s the key exchange in the interview:

MATTHEWS: Name a major piece of the 1.4 trillion to 1.7 trillion. No, just take –

RYAN: OK.

MATTHEWS: — just take a chunk out that 1.4 trillion by getting rid of a big program or good expenditure that people now watching can understand.

RYAN: I would rescind the unspent stimulus funds. I would rescind all the TARP funds that aren’t spent. I would do a federal hiring freeze and pay freeze for the rest of the year. And I would go back and cut discretionary spending back to ‘08 levels and freeze that spending going forward.

Now, you and I can get into a debate about Keynesian economics, whether it worked or didn’t. I don’t think it did. We increased domestic discretionary last year by 84 percent. I don’t think we should continue to build that kind of a base. Let`s go back and cut discretionary spending back to `08 levels.

MATTHEWS: OK.

RYAN: Rescind stimulus, rescind TARP and do a federal hiring and pay freeze. Those are just a few ideas that add up to $1.3 trillion right there.

Prior to this exchange, Matthews tried saying that Republicans just talked smart about reducing the deficit, implying that they weren’t serious about it. Here’s that exchange: (more…)