Ohio Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan's Bizarre Alternative Universe

This morning's CNBC program, Squawkbox, featured an interview with Democratic Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. Listening to Ryan made me wonder if he doesn't live in some bizarre, alternative universe.

For example, he defended Wonderboy's healthcare bill, blithely claiming that 'much middle class suffering would have been avoided if we'd passed this years ago.'

Really? It's already resulting in rising premiums and, yesterday, McDonalds Corporation's internal email regarding dropping its employee healthcare plans. More expensive coverage of fewer people before the plan has even hit its stride. Just great.

Then Ryan assailed the Chinese yuan, claiming that they are dumping because, thanks to lower wage rates, some specific good they produce hits US shores at a price that equals the US cost to simply produce the same item.

Ryan then bizarrely launched into a diatribe about green energy, and how its use would make the US competitive in some heavy industry product sectors. Too bad Ryan seems not to understand that wind and solar can't be reliably used for heavy power applications, never mind their higher prices, sans subsidies.

In Ryan's world, real economics don't matter. Only what politicians want to attempt to create with subsidies, transfer payments and other schemes which make King Canute's command of the sea to retreat look reasonable, by comparison.

It evidently doesn't occur to Ryan that we shouldn't want growth in jobs in the US which rely on trade wars or subsidies to make them "competitive" with low-end Chinese jobs. That this is a losing battle.

Ryan happily identified himself with Wonderboy's entire agenda. But, then again, he was named by Frisco Nan to the House Democratic leadership team, so you'd expect nothing less from a true believer.

A true believer in a solidly blue Ohio district, at that.

Still, it's a troubling but revealing portrait of how screwed up and out of touch the ruling liberal Democrats are on important matters of economics, trade and healthcare.