When your day starts with a NY Times column about you, written by a Nobel-Prize winning economist, and it's headlined, "The Flimflam Man," you , might want to consider going back to bed.


Paul Krugman says Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan has gotten widespread praise in the media for his Roadmap for America's Future economic plan, but he can't imagine why.


A few of the choice bits from Krugman:


The Washington Post put a glowing profile of Mr. Ryan on its front page, portraying him as the G.O.P.’s fiscal conscience. He’s often described with phrases like “intellectually audacious.” But it’s the audacity of dopes...

Mr. Ryan may speak about the deficit in apocalyptic terms, but even if you believe that his proposed spending cuts are feasible — which you shouldn’t — the Roadmap wouldn’t reduce the deficit. All it would do is cut benefits for the middle class while slashing taxes on the rich...


The Tax Policy Center finds that the Ryan plan would cut taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population in half, giving them 117 percent of the plan’s total tax cuts. That’s not a misprint. Even as it slashed taxes at the top, the plan would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population...


After 2020, the main alleged saving would come from sharp cuts in Medicare, achieved by dismantling Medicare as we know it, and instead giving seniors vouchers and telling them to buy their own insurance. Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s the same plan Newt Gingrich tried to sell in 1995.


The Ryan plan is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America’s fiscal future.


Have a nice day, Paul.


Read it here.