Orszag vs. Ryan

James Capretta / August 05, 2010

And so we have finally arrived at the heart of the matter.

In recent days, Peter Orszag, the now-former director of the Office of Management and Budget (he left the position at the end of last week), and Ezra Klein, the like-minded liberal blogger for The Washington Post, have weighed in — again — on Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap.” Orszag did so in a farewell speech at the Brookings Institution, and Klein in a blog post that went up yesterday.

Their takes on the “Roadmap,” and specifically how it would reform Medicare and health care, are similar and unsurprising. They both give Ryan credit for laying out a coherent and robust alternative to Obamacare. But they, along with many other liberal commentators, also completely mischaracterize what would occur if the Ryan plan were adopted, even as they gloss over the glaring deficiencies of the reform program they favor. Indeed, the irony is that the primary criticism they level against the Ryan plan is actually the reason to oppose Obamacare. (more…)