A fiscal hawk, grounded

Paul Ryan has not proved his theory that Americans are ready to debate painful cuts

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I don't really get the Tea Party swooning over Ryan. He's the quintessential career politician. In fact, he has spent even less time working in the private sector than Obama has (not counting teenage burger flipping Ryan worked 1 year in his family's business and 2 years at Empower America, a think tank. Obama worked 16 years in the private sector - albeit not nearly as much as Romney). Even his brother called him a "career politician". He's been on the Congressional benefit plan virtually his entire adult life so how can he pretend to understand what it's like for the rest of us out in the 'real world"?


"They praise his pro-gun, anti-abortion record, and what a Wisconsin fan terms Mr Ryan’s willingness to “destroy” environmental regulation. "

Pro-gun, anti-abortion and against environmental protection.

This pretty much sums up what is wrong with the Republican party in the US.

See, the premise of this article is completely wrong. Ryan is deficit hawk in name only. If he were truly a deficit hawk, he would abandon all that social reactionary BS and admit that the US needs to cut EVERYTHING, including defense, and raise taxes to balance its budget, because this is important.
If he were truly a deficit hawk he would have admit to no public opinion about guns, abortion, deerhunting, because these thing are IRRELEVANT.

Wouldn't that be nice, a politician that had the guts to say that abortion, guns, homosexuality are matters that really have nothing to do with the office of the president.


Romney/Ryan's problem (for me, anyway) is the hidden agenda. Addressing the deficit problem is a good thing, indeed. But that's not what they're addressing. They really want to shrink government by starving it. Additionally, they want to defeat a sitting president because they don't recognize his credentials for the job. Their Grover Norquist no-tax pledges makes their approach unworkable. I find this especially galling given Bush's record. So now you have these guys deliberately not stating what they will do if elected, while accusing the President having no plan. This is a power grab, pure and simple. It defies economic sense. It plays on the fears of the average citizen in a changing America. And it exacerbates the shift of wealth to the top tier. The Romney camp promised a "return to the issues" when they chose Ryan. They never had any intention of doing any such thing. They don't want to debate the deficit. They only want the combination to the safe.

WT Economist

"America’s debts guaranteed a 'diminished future' to the kids preparing trick-or-treating costumes today, he sorrowed: a moral failure."

And long before he was a candidate, he promised to make good on that guarantee. By sparing Generation Greed, the ones responsible for the moral failure, from any restrictions on their public old age benefits, cutting the taxes of the most affluent members of that generation, and borrowing the difference.

If he had asked Generation Greed to share the pain I would have respected him. Who knows? I might have even voted Republican -- after 30 years of voting against them at the federal level on generational equity grounds.

As it is, President Obama has done far more to slightly reduce the moral failure than anything Ryan considered. By daring to say that if the country is going to go bankrupt anyway, payroll taxes should be reduced too, and those in younger generations ought to get some health care assistance. Not that its enough. But it is something.


"Questioned by a union member anxious about jobs, he defended capitalism as the best safety net."

So, the best safety net is to never be unemployed? That's obvious enough. But would he also concede that risk-taking is a vital part of healthy capitalism, and a functioning safety net is conducive to more risk-taking?


The congressional budget office and every major economist who has examined the US government's budget conclude that our current fiscal mess comes from the following:

1) The Bush tax cuts reduction in government review – and before I get the usual neo-con rebuttals claiming to quote the Economic Report of the President, please remember to use inflation adjusted data or data as a percent of GDP when examining economic time series data
2) Two wars and their associated increase in defense spending
3) The economic down turn which resulted in cuts in government tax revenue and increased outlays for items such as unemployment benefits

Congressman Ryan’s budget, which really is not a budget so much as an extended Rush Limbaugh style essay with a few numbers dropped in to give the illusion of wonkish analysis provides an extended diatribe on the evils of our current president, skips items 1)-3) above and claims the real issue is Medicare, Medicade and Social Security, which need to be slashed. Ryan next assumes that tax revenues grow due to the economic magic of his budget and voila, balanced budget. Add to this killing Obamacare and stating the people with pre-existing health conditions can be discriminated against or denied health insurance al together and you find that Ryan’s “Budget” is little more than a junior high school level essay promoting social Darwinism.

Congressman Ryan loves his country, however, like his running mate he hates most of the people who live here – or at least 47%.


Demography dictates changes in the Republican future appeal.

"Republicans, the anti-government party, depend on the votes of the elderly, the affluent, and the rural—in other words, the American government's redistributional winners. From the point of view of those voters, any compromise will bring only bad news to them. They like things the way they are now!" – David Frum


Maybe American's aren't ready to debate painful cuts with a fiscal fraud. As you correctly point out, Ryan is not really a "fiscal" hawk. Any true fiscal hawk would not rule out some increase in revenues to address the supposedly existential threat supposedly posed by the deficit and debt. I believe that the vast majority of Americans would be willing to suffer cuts to social programs and even pay a little bit more in taxes to balance the budget and pay down the debt, but they are not willing to do while the wealthy get more tax cuts at the same time. And why would anyone trust the GOP to cut the deficit? The GOP has proven that it is not a fiscally conservative party -- tax cuts during a time of war and Cheney's "Reagen proved deficits don't matter" statement. The GOP has only itself to blame by shilling for the rich at the expense of the fiscal health of the nation.


Affable semi-rural guy? Nah, he's a product of the Beltway right-wing think-tank scene, a consummate Washington insider with ties to GOP grandees. His proposals have not fared well under scrutiny, especially since he became Mitt's running mate. The media actually started to explain Ryan's proposals- the voucher system to "save" medicare. And, of course Tax Cuts, Always Tax Cuts. And Tax Cut Magic to transform the economy- which does not add up. He is slick and practiced, though. Reminds me a little of George Allen, who plays the Good Old Boy, when he grew up in Palos Verdes with a French mom.

Dr Lou

That Ryan has not '...proved his theory that Americans are ready to debate painful cuts' is driven more to the capriciousness and vagueness of those cuts that the need for cuts, themselves. His numbers are poorly constructed and he really doesn't have much to offer outside of ideology. And if Ryan is the future of the Republican intellect, that bodes poorly for both the GOP and the U.S.

Ryan's budget planning is insensitive and unresponsive to the majority of Americans and focused on the highest end of the 1%. If implemented, Ryan's 'painful cuts' will, in fact, not only hurt children with autism but countless more children and families who depend on federal supports for health care and day to day function; even survival. Cutting food stamps, for instance, towards making still more tax cuts for the wealthiest 'revenue neutral' is not only economically flawed but borders on evil politics.

America is ready to talk about cuts and the realignment of our so called entitlements. Unfortunately, thus far there really is nobody to talk to it about. Romney/Ryan and their strongest backers are principally pushing their own interests against the majority of Americans while the Democrats continue to find it hard to muster a single backbone among themselves.

The threat to Obama's necessary and critical, if only initial healthcare reforms, is real should the GOP plant themselves in the White House. With no indication of the 'replace' component of 'repeal and replace,' dismantling the initial volleys of 'Obamacare' will significantly compromise the American economy if, for no other reason, by giving an already out of control medical-health care industrial complex a new found mandate.

Ryan is not a thoughtful pragmatist but has long pursued a far Right agenda. His efforts to diminish prosecution for rape by attempts to qualify 'forcible rape' as a focus for the law combined with his long held belief that abortion should not...ever...be made available even when the woman's life is in danger is only aligned with a small (however loud)cross section of Americans. The fact that one of Ryan's co-legislators in this realm was Todd ('legitimate rape') Akin has not been given near enough attention.

Ryan efforts represent far less a thoughtful intellect than the actions of a pure ideologue. He is also a walking oxymoron as he lives out his strident support for the philosophy of the ultimately self-centered individual as articulated by the ardent atheist Ayn Rand to the exclusion of social supports while arguing his so called Catholic bonafides. Even some of the more conservative members of the American Catholic hierarchy have been unimpressed with Ryan's budget priorities.

That Ryan has now been targeted as the intellectual future of the GOP speaks less of his efforts and far more on the static delusion, shrinking umbrella, nurtured willful ignorance and wholesale disconnect which has become the American Republican Party. And the string of fawning articles which continue to treat Ryan as if he actually has something to offer other than a nice smile and blue eyes is troubling.

While the probabilities still remain with Obama, the possibility that Romney could find himself in the White House has increased. And should that happen, the many Far Right and theocratic-driven organizations which have given him an opening by backing off of their previously vitriolic dislike for a Romney Presidency will be of the opinion that he owes them a debt of gratitude.

And with Ryan as a possible conduit for that 'gratitude,' America should be very, very concerned.

K Wilson

Mr. Ryan a fiscal hawk? Oh, yes indeed (bitter sarcasm), in exactly the way that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were fiscal hawks. Cut income taxes on the wealthy first, last, and always, and the rest of it will take care of itself, and deficits only matter under Democratic presidents. This is not the policy of a responsible adult who cares about deficits. This is the policy of a romantic Randian ideologue who pretends to be serious about deficits because telling the truth would cost him reelection. The fact that Mr. Ryan is taken seriously is a perfect indicator of the degeneracy of today's Republican party. Once the economy recovers a bit more, the US will need some responsible fiscal conservatism. We will not get it from Mr Ryan.


Like his boss, Ryan is fiscal fraud and 'bullshit artist of the highest order.' Shooting deers must not qualify one one for public office!!!


Romney and Ryan are basing their economic theory on the idea that cutting income taxes on the wealthy will spur 5% economic growth that will pour the tax revenues into Washington that will fund the two-trillion dollar increase in military spending he says he wants.

Yet for some reason he does not believe that this 5% growth will provide the tax revenues to bolster the sustainability of Social Security and Medicare. Ryan says that Social Security and Medicare can only be "saved" by converting them to vouchers. We all know what happened when these guys told us ten years ago that our pensions could only be "saved" by converting them to 401 plans.

Here again you have to wonder if R&R believe their own theories.

Bardejov in reply to tmbass

"at least they express what appears to be a genuine concern for the persistently high deficit and exploding national debt."

The keyword here is "appears." If they were really sincere about reducing the deficit, wouldn't they entertain the idea of at least some tax hikes? Wouldn't they put defense spending and social security on the table along with money for autistic kids?

If Ryan is such a deficit hawk then why did he vote for Medicare Part D and other Bush era deficit bombs?

Damn Dirty Ape

Americans are certainly not ready to debate or countenance any cuts.
The two plans of the main candidates are as follows:

Obama: Tax the rich--Problem, not enough rich people

Romney: Lower taxes but cut loop holes--Problem, not enough loop holes.

Both plans come with zero specifics. Why? Because they would get slaughtered if they suggested an actual tax increase or an actual benefit cut.
Thank You, american people.


How on earth can Ryan claim to be a 'fiscal hawk' when he has voted for EVERY (BAR NONE) pork-barrel initiative as US Representative to Wisconsin. And this includes QE.

It's one of the great recurring amazements. Consummate Washington insiders running on an anti-Washington platform.

Once, one could have admired their chutzpah. But since it has a proven track record, it lacks the courage that chutzpah would require.



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