• • Paul Ryan’s redistributionism 
New York Times - Evaluations Jonathan Chait has a long post about how [Paul] Ryan’s roadmap “clarifies the essence of the Republican Party’s approach to domestic policy issues,” which involves “opposition to the downward redistribution of income.” Noting that Ryan has said kind words about Ayn Rand, he writes that “the core of the Randian worldview, as absorbed by the modern GOP, is a belief that the natural market distribution of income is inherently moral, and the central struggle of politics is to free the successful from having the fruits of their superiority redistributed by looters and moochers.” And he argues: “Every major element of Ryan’s plan reflects this commitment … Ryan would retain some bare-bones subsidies for the poorest, but the overwhelming thrust in every way is to liberate the lucky and successful to enjoy their good fortune without burdening them with any responsibility for the welfare of their fellow citizens.” This strikes me as an overstatement, to put it mildly. Ryan’s proposed changes to the tax code — his reduction in the highest rates, and his addition of a consumption tax — would shift the tax burden down the income ladder, just as Chait says. But nearly every other major element of the roadmap would make the American welfare state more redistributionist, rather than less so.     Share on Facebook