Thing One: Romney-Ryan: After much overhyped anticipation, Mitt Romney announced Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his vice presidential nominee Saturday, and it already seems as if Romney’s number two is following in numberone's footsteps. Ryan will only be releasing two years of his tax returns, despite turning over years worth of returns to the Romney campaign, he said during an interview with 60 Minutes. You may remember that Romney has received some, well, flack over his decision to only release his tax returns from 2010 and later. You, dear reader are surely waiting eagerly for us, The Media, to comb through Ryan’s returns for a Swiss bank account or something.
Ryan’s decision to be less than forthcoming with his tax returns isn’t his only source of controversy. This is the man who as chairman of the House budget committeeproposed cuts on things that Americans have gotten kind of used to, like food stamps and health care, both in retirement and for the poor, according to Bloomberg. Despite his enthusiasm for slashing these programs all in the name of smaller government’s debt, Ryan has also proposed shrinking taxes on the wealthy -- another popular way to slice government debt.
For these reasons, it is perhaps not surprising that a whole host of progressive economists, from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder, have been critical of his budget proposals, as The Huffington Post’s Catherine New reports.