The New York Times' David Leonhardt begins today's piece with a refreshingly straightforward lede:

In their Pledge to America, Congressional Republicans have used the old trick of promising specific tax cuts and vague spending cuts. It's the politically easy approach, and it is likely to be as bad for the budget as when George W. Bush tried it.

Unfortunately, Leonhardt then shifts into “Praise Paul Ryan” mode, which is apparently mandatory among Beltway media:

The sad thing is, a truly conservative approach to the deficit does exist. You can find strands of it among Republican governors, some of the party's current Congressional candidates and the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan.

…

[T]he biggest cause of looming deficits is Medicare. Mr. Daniels, a possible 2012 presidential candidate, recently told Newsweek that he favored Medicare cuts. Mr. Ryan has been willing to get specific. For everyone now under 55, he wants to turn Medicare into a voucher program that's much less generous than the program is scheduled to be.

Mr. Ryan's budget blueprint offers an especially pointed contrast with the pledge. The Ryan plan calls for holding taxes at around 19 percent of G.D.P. and suggests specific cuts to bring spending in line. The pledge calls for even lower taxes — while offering almost no detail on spending cuts.

Which seems more credible?

But the Ryan plan doesn't call for “holding taxes at around 19 percent of GDP” -- it pretends that tax revenue will remain around 19 percent of GDP, even as Ryan proposes significant changes to the tax system. The Tax Policy Center's Howard Gleckman has pointed out that Ryan's proposed changes are similar to those offered by Fred Thompson during his presidential campaign -- and that Thompson's “scheme would reduce tax revenues by between $6 trillion and $8 trillion over 10 years.”

Ryan specifically instructed the Congressional Budget Office to ignore his actual tax proposals and instead simply assume that tax revenue remains at 19 percent of GDP -- and yet Ryan consistently wins media praise for producing a “specific” and “credible” budget blueprint. Bizarre. It's like he's the new John McCain.