The Democrats’ plan will be to make Paul Ryan the most hated man in America, if not the world. The campaign will be — and already is — personal. It will be personal because the facts are not on their side. Our choices are: 1. raise taxes severely, and pretend that that is not going to have catastrophic economic consequences; 2. court a national fiscal crisis on the Portugal model but on a significantly larger scale, and pretend that that is not going to have catastrophic economic consequences; 3. cut spending.

If I were a Republican strategist, I’d be preparing to make sure that the number 88 is on the tip of every tongue. Ryan’s entitlement reforms are intelligent and they are reasonable — an 88 percent tax hike is neither. And that’s the choice.