TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

President Obama called Paul Ryan’s budget plan “thinly veiled social darwinism”:

“Disguised as deficit-reduction plan, it’s really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It’s nothing but thinly veiled Social Darwinism. It’s antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everyone who’s willing to work for it — a place where prosperity doesn’t trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class. And by gutting the very things we need to grow an economy that’s built to last — education and training; research and development — it’s a prescription for decline.”

Marc Eisner comments:

Ryan hopes to achieve federal spending reductions to 20 percent GDP by 2015. By way of comparison, average spending during the George W. Bush presidency was 19.6 percent GDP. During the Clinton presidency, average spending was 19.8 percent GDP.

If Ryan’s goal of reducing government spending to 20 percent GDP is radical, the empirical record seems to argue otherwise.

Wow, I never thought that President Obama would lay down the gauntlet and call President Clinton’s policies social darwinism. You have to admire his willingness to call a spade a spade, even when it’s one of his party’s greatest heroes. Bravo.