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The U.S. economy has been in the doldrums for the past several years. With no clear, bright light at the end of the tunnel, some experts are talking about some serious remedies to jumpstart consumers, businesses, investors and other assorted financial players out of their stupor. But if we are using metaphors like taking medicine and jumpstarting some parts of the economic equation, perhaps when it comes to what the government needs to do we should be talking about lobotomies.One of the more vocal doctors calling for economic major surgery is Paul Ryan, Republican Representative from Wisconsin. He has examined the patient and is prescribing an economic policy overhaul teetering on radical. And that is even if it might mean self-destruction to his career as a public servant. The way Ryan sees it, the symptoms of the disease are plateaued high unemployment, astronomical debt payments and a massive tax burden that are slowly, or not so slowly, killing the patient. Making matters worse are the entitlements like Medicare and Social Security and government spent monies meant to fight the recession even though these dollars are being collected at lower and lower amounts as tax revenues have continued to decrease.Although Ryan has not actually suggested the abolishment of Social Security and other entitlements, it seems clear he is thinking it, or at least is thinking about thinking it. But would have been seen as an unthinkable thought during the boom years of the U.S. economy is becoming more and more palatable to voters as the economy continues to dawdle, deteriorate, and perhaps even die. Ryan has put together a “Roadmap for America’s Future,” a difficult, but realistic policy paper and proposed bill, which insists that the government needs to reduce the federal deficit through privatization and penny pinching for both Social Security and Medicare; freezing the growth of most federal programs; and creating a simple, two-tiered system of taxation whose intention and outcome would be tax reduction for the rich.Yes, a hard pill to swallow, but maybe it’s time to look at the alternatives and choose life.
