David Stockman takes Paul Ryan to the Woodshed

While I don't agree that the current deficit is the issue, David Stockman is at least honest about how to tackle the problem, unlike the current unserious fleebs in Congress (on both sides of the aisle)

Stockman sees similar shenanigans and deception afoot in the long-term deficit reduction plans. ...Stockman doesn't think much of [Representative Paul Ryan's] plan. "Ryan for instance says he gets to a balanced budget, but he does so in the fiscal afterlife, in 2030. That's irrelevant. The issue is what you're doing two or three years from now."

What's more, the Ryan plan is full of the same type of phantom cuts that characterized the budget deal, albeit on a much larger scale.

But he reserves his strongest criticism for the Bush tax cuts.

As much as it has a spending problem, the U.S. also has a taxing problem. Stockman says taxes have to go up -- across the board. "Here's where I take strong issue with the Obama administration," he said. " They want it [the Bush tax cuts] to expire on the top two percent of earners. They can get by. But we can't afford any of the Bush tax cuts, and therefore we're going to have to let them all expire."

When you look at tax distribution, I take issue with Stockman's assessment, but he is, in principle, correct.