Paul Ryan says the budget is "compassionate" - he should unpack that comment some more

In his Washington Post op-ed today, Paul Ryan writes:

Our budget offers a compassionate and optimistic contrast to a future of health-care rationing and unbearably high taxes. We lift the crushing burden of debt, repair the safety net, make America’s tax system fair and competitive, and ensure that our health and retirement programs have a strong and lasting future. These issues are too important to leave to the politics of the past. If President Obama won’t lead, we will.

He has given the rest of the GOP its talking points on debt and its relationship to prosperity.

The compassion concept should also become part of the talking points, because the Left will continue to hit the budget on its lack of sensitivity to the poor.

For starters is the idea of intergenerational justice. Cutting Medicaid now, but giving states more flexibility, should serve not just a budgetary end but also a social justice - or compassion - end. Does compassion for future generations justify withholding resources now? Yes, but it needs further debate and refinement.

We'll be covering this theme at ConservativeHome more in the coming weeks.