AEI: 3 Things You Should Know about Paul Ryan's Medicare Reform - in 100 Words

"Clip and save" these "key facts about Paul Ryan's approach to saving Medicare," writes James Pethokoukis at AEI:

1. No one over the age of 55 would be affected in any way.

2. Traditional Medicare fee-for-service would remain available for all. “Premium support”—that is, government funding of private insurance plans chosen by individuals—is an option for those who choose it. No senior would be forced out of the traditional Medicare program against his will.

3. Overall funding for Medicare under the Ryan-Wyden plan is scheduled to grow at the same rate as under President Obama’s proposals. Is this “gutting Medicare” and “ending Medicare as we know it”? In reality, it’s the market giving seniors cheaper, higher quality choices they can take if they wish, with the traditional program remaining an option.

Pethokoukis: Fed Caused Great Recession, Not Bushonomics

So says a new book by Robert Hetzel, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. James Pethokoukis at AEI gets in the economic weeds so we don't have to.  He writes:

The president argues that it was the unchecked, reckless, casino capitalism of the George W. Bush years — bank deregulation, tax cuts for the rich — that lead to the nation’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And if Mitt Romney is elected in November, the Republican will bring those policies right back, risking another financial collapse.

But a book by Robert Hetzel, a senior economist at Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, says it wasn’t Bushonomics or greedy bankers or broken markets that caused the Great Recession. In The Great Recession: Market Failure or Policy Failure, Hetzel pins the blame squarely on the Federal Reserve and Team Bernanke.

Obama Administration's Binge Spending

"Until Barack Obama took office in 2009, the United States had never spent more than 23.5% of GDP, with the exception of the World War II years of 1942-1946," writes James Pethokoukis. Responding to an article claiming Obama's spending binge never occurred, Pethokoukis put the Obama binge spending record into a simple graphic: