Saturday, August 11, 2012

Don't Confuse Paul Ryan with Ron Paul

So much for the Ron Paul-Rand Paul influence on Mitt Romney. Romney has chosen the phony budget cutter Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential candidate/

Laurence Vance wrote in February 2010:
If it wasn't so tragic, it would be fun to watch Republicans when the Democrats are in power. Typical is the pseudo-budget cutter Paul Ryan (not to be confused with Ron Paul), the chairman of the House Budget Committee. Ryan, who recently said: "I am the budget chairman. I am a Republican. I am a conservative. I have been pointing out the big flaws of all of the taxing and the spending that has been going on around here," voted for Bushcare, otherwise known as the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.
Ryan also voted for the TARP bailout and the auto bailout.

With regard for Ryan's budget program, Paul Krugman correctly said that the plan "would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population". Krugman also said the proposed spending cuts were a "sham" because they depended on making a severe cut in domestic discretionary spending without specifying the programs to be cut, and on "dismantling Medicare as we know it," which is politically unrealistic.

In  2002, Ryan voted in favor of the Iraq War resolution.

As for Ryan on military spending, Politico notes:

For all his reputation as a budget hawk, Ryan has been a dove when it comes to defense spending – so much so that he accused Pentagon leaders of misleading Congress earlier this year when they said President Barack Obama’s budget was adequate for the job they had to do. 
“We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice,” Ryan said in March. “We don’t think the generals believe that their budget is really the right budget.”...
...both men [Romney and Ryan] support Pentagon budgets growing by billions of dollars more than the plans of the Obama administration – the only difference is by how much. Ryan’s alternate spending plan protected the Pentagon even as it slashed or reshaped much of the rest of federal spending, and Romney’s support for DOD is even more aggressive.
Ryan will debate Vice President Joe Biden on October 11, at the auditorium on the campus of Center College in quaint Danville, Kentucky.


Ryan has been in politics his entire adult life. Ryan's wife is a tax attorney.

10 comments:

  1. What's your thoughts on Virgil Goode of the constitutionalist party?

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  2. Ryan is the least bad choice among Romney's finalists. At least he has acknowledged that we HAVE a budget problem and has proposed that we don't kick the can as far down the road as everyone else proposes.

    More importantly, his nomination will move the entitlement debate into the election debate itself which is where it belongs.

    As I recall, Virgil Goode was allied with Ron Paul when he was in Congress, and I believe he voted against the Iraq War.

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    1. As far down the road? Come on let's stop lying to other people and particularly ourselves.

      Paul Ryan wants to "balance 'the' budget" in 40 years. As in "A" yearly budget.

      I'll be 67 years old by the time Paul Ryan "balances" anything. At that one * year of spending.
      If that is what all these supposed fiscal conservatives support and think that's enough, I don't respect them as fellow people. They're liars. They don't deserve me looking in their general direction.

      They're no different than Democrats, they simply like to babyplay that they happen to be, until they curl up old wrinkled and die and leave everyone else the check.
      Old democrats that switched over one day, nothing more.

      Anybody that thinks 40 years of politicians are going to give two spits in the direction of what dried up dead Paul Ryan said some lost decade(s) ago needs to stop pretending they're fiscal conservatives and just self-admit they're moderate democrats at best. They stink like rot to me.

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  3. Seriously? Paul Rino? Supported the auto bailouts. Supported TARP. Supported raising the debt ceiling. Supported the 'Patriot' Act. Supported NDAA. Supported CISPA. Supported using our troops in Libya. Supports a national ID. Need I go on?

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  4. The Wisconsin RLC seems to have deleted its write up of Paul Ryan's voting record, but for now the cached version still exists: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://wi.rlc.org/2010/08/paul-ryans-record/

    In case it's gone, the most pertinent part says:

    ncreasingly our Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan has become a national media darling. Representative Ryan is consistently being promoted on social media networks and by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the nationwide “free market” group Americans for Prosperity.

    The fact of the matter is that Congressman Ryan voted with George W. Bush 94% of the time. That’s why Ryan’s 2007 Republican Liberty Caucus Liberty Index score, which ranks members of Congress on their voting record from a constitutional perspective, was 91% on economic issues but only 56% on social issues. In 2006, his score on the Liberty Index was 66% on economic issues and 67% on social issues. He has scored better on the Liberty Index; his 2008 score, for example, was 88 both on social and economic issues — an impressive score.

    It appears that when Paul Ryan’s party is doing the spending, raising debt limits, and acting unconstitutionally… Ryan goes with the flow.

    Congressman Ryan’s actual record leaves much to be desired.

    The issue Ryan is most known for is his interest in cutting the deficit and balancing the budget.

    But why did the Congressman vote to bail out the auto industry, to pass the Medicare package to the tune of $400 billion, and to nationalize education via No Child Left Behind?

    Paul Ryan on Bailouts and Government Stimuli
    -Voted YES on TARP (2008)
    -Voted YES on Economic Stimulus HR 5140 (2008)
    -Voted YES on $15B bailout for GM and Chrysler. (Dec 2008)
    -Voted YES on $192B additional anti-recession stimulus spending. (Jul 2009)

    Paul Ryan on Entitlement Programs
    -Voted YES on limited prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. (Nov 2003)
    -Voted YES on providing $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers. (Jun 2006)
    -Voted YES on extending unemployment benefits from 39 weeks to 59 weeks. (Oct 2008)
    -Voted YES on Head Start Act (2007)

    Paul Ryan on Education
    Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.

    -Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)

    Paul Ryan on Civil Liberties
    -Voted YES on federalizing rules for driver licenses to hinder terrorists. (Feb 2005)
    -Voted YES on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)
    -Voted YES on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant. (Sep 2006)

    Paul Ryan on War and Intervention Abroad
    -Voted YES on authorizing military force in Iraq. (Oct 2002)
    -Voted YES on emergency $78B for war in Iraq & Afghanistan. (Apr 2003)
    -Voted YES on declaring Iraq part of War on Terror with no exit date. (Jun 2006)
    -Voted NO on redeploying US troops out of Iraq starting in 90 days. (May 2007)

    Congressman Ryan supports the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, federal bailouts, increased federal involvement in education, unconstitutional and undeclared wars, Medicare Part D (a multi trillion dollar unfunded liability), stimulus spending, and foreign aid.

    According to Michelle Malkin in 2009, “[Paul Ryan] gave one of the most hysterical speeches in the rush to pass TARP last fall; voted for the auto bailout; and voted with the Barney Frank-Nancy Pelosi AIG bonus-bashing stampede. Milwaukee blogger Nick Schweitzer wrote: ‘He ought to be apologizing for his previous votes, not pretending he was being responsible the entire time, but I don’t see one bit of regret for what he did previously. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him get away with it’.”

    Congressman Ryan: if you don’t like debt, stop voting for debt.

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  5. We appear to be doomed. 4 more years of Obama or potentially 8 more years of Romney. My only hope is that since they are all in-sincere liars and cheats, they may have secret plans to be more aggressive in dealing with problems once elected and may be hiding it in fear it will cost them the election. That's a pretty big hope - not sure I'd bet what's left in my bank account on it... Wake up America - the morons are winning!

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  6. nader paul kucinich gravel mckinney baldwin ventura sheehan perot carterAugust 12, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    We know Ron Paul ...

    Paul Ryan is no Ron Paul

    No more Puppet Presidents.

    DUMP the Romney Robot in Tampa Bay

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  7. I'm a strong Ron Paul supporter, but I'll be voting for Romney/Ryan for a couple of reasons. One, they have a decent chance of beating Obama--Ryan was a smart choice. Two, I strongly desire a pro-life chief executive. Three, I believe the discussion of cutting government spending will at least be on the table with Ryan. Four, Ryan's instincts regarding gay rights more closely align with mine than most of the far right.
    I admire the die-hards for getting the discussion moved this far, but I'm a pragmatist, as well as a Ron Paul supporter.

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    1. Romney is so pro-life he legislated state sponsored abortions.

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  8. The selection of Ryan is a blatantly OBVIOUS effort to confuse SOME people. Probably the really elderly, or the TOTALLY uninformed. Anything for votes ya' know?
    That and the fact that you couldn't ask for a 'better' 'go-along' guy

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