Political balloons

I stand by my April 14 approval of Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s 102-page budget for fiscal year 2015, but “without the rhetoric.”

Ryan’s rhetoric extends through his House Budget Committee’s Budget Plan, a 99-page “Path to Prosperity,” and his committee’s 222-page Budget Report.

Democrats have returned rhetorical fire with assertions and rumors, built around headline-getting talking points gleaned from Ryan’s rhetoric. Irresponsible allegations pass and bump each other, as if in balloons batted in a confined space by raucous children, screaming “look at me.”

National media magnify the theater, without popping the balloons. If you want a pin, google “House Concurrent Resolution 96.” There you will find long lists of numbers, adding or subtracting to our deficit, and space for savings or expenditures, should members of other House Committees rush headlong to implement Congressman Ryan’s philosophical lecture points, but that’s unlikely.

You will not find changes, which I would strongly oppose, creating Medicaid vouchers, or rolling back the Patient Responsibility and Affordable Care Act. You will find a deliberative framework, which with quiet reflection and respectful engagement, could serve all of us, as we work to reduce our national deficit wisely and humanely.

John Driscoll

Democratic U.S. House Candidate

Helena