We’re Better Than This

by Stuart Shapiro

After listening to Rep. Ryan’s speech last night  I was at loss for words.  Fortunately, Steve Benen wasn’t:

CNN’s Erin Burnett added, “There will be issues with some of the facts, but it motivated people.”

Let that sentence roll around in your brain for a moment, and ponder what it means for our country.

Ryan lied uncontrollably, but that’s not terribly important. It undermines our democracy and the basic norms of the American political system, but no one seems to care anymore. Ryan thinks we’re idiots, but his cynicism matters less than the electoral implications.

The United States is better than Paul Ryan’s dishonesty. It has to be. Our future depends on it.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.