No that it's not loaded with bullshit- it still is. The most important bullshit is that he plans to balance the budget to a great extent through spending cuts, but doesn't name those cuts specifically. He also talks about making the tax code more efficient so he can lower rates, which is a good idea and not opposed by Liberals in principle, but does not name any of the loopholes he'll close. Realistic people understand that one person's loophole is another person's livelihood, and it will take a holy war to end any significant tax breaks.
And of course he wants to end the ObamaCare, which the CBO says will increase the deficit (since it is funded through taxes). And he wants to cut Medicaid and Medicare severely, making the latter into a voucher program and thereby offloading higher costs onto individual Americans.
So what makes it brave? Well, through all the ridiculous spin, there is a plan there that makes it clear what the Republican vision for the country is right now. It's really radical- but that doesn't make it evil. The Right's vision is pretty simply this: You're on Your Own. No government sugar daddy is going to pay for your retirement or your medical care, contribute to your college education, protect your food from contamination, fix your roads, subsidize your trains, regulate your banks to try to stop the next crash, etc. etc. In a 21st Century world, they want to return to a 19th Century government model.
Maybe it'll work great. I'm hoping we never get to find out.
By the way, it won't balance the budget. The simplest way to balance the budget is for congress to do nothing, let the Bush tax cuts expire, ignore the Medicare doc fix, and then work on slowing the growth of health care costs.
UPDATE: Here's commentary from Bruce Bartlett, a long-time Republican economist who worked in the Reagan and Poppy Bush White Houses. He's not too keen on the plan.
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