Opinion: April 6 Buzz: Paul Ryan’s budget; the sad story of John Thompson; anti-Muslim pastor Terry Jones

It’s the stuff of a television crime drama: Prosecutors withhold blood evidence that would exonerate the defendant in an attempted armed robbery case. The defendant is then convicted of an unrelated murder after a trial at which he dared not testify lest his previous robbery conviction be mentioned. After 14 years on death row, his execution is imminent. At the last minute, evidence clearing the defendant of the robbery attempt is produced. Later he is tried again for the murder and acquitted. This actually happened and, not surprisingly, the longtime prisoner, John Thompson, wanted redress.

Unlike Obama, who has yet to offer any serious proposal to bring the budget into balance and stop the national debt from reaching a dangerously high level, Ryan offered a budget plan Tuesday that would pare spending by about $6 trillion over the next decade, and by enough to eliminate the deficit within 30 years. For that he deserves credit. The problem, though, is that his plan shifts the country’s biggest fiscal problems onto other parties rather than solving them.