Paul Ryan!

If you've been a long time reader of this blog, you'll remember I said this about Paul Ryan:

http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/05/opportunity-society-or-welfare-state.html

and this:

http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/03/sporting-little-crush.html

and this:

http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/04/better-politician-excellent-piece-on.html

and this:
http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-still-heart-paul-ryan.html

and this:

http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/03/paul-ryan-interview-with-politico.html

and this:

http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/03/latest-thoughts-from-paul-ryan.html

and this:

http://rightg.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-on-paul-ryan.html

...all about Paul Ryan.

And yes, I still have a crush on him.

Good job, MITT!

~ G

Opportunity Society or Welfare State?

Paul Ryan in an interview discussing the Roadmap for America's Future.  Some noteworthy lines:

"Do we want an opportunity society with a safety net or do we want a cradle to grave welfare state?

"We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem."

"We need to reform the tax code to make it more entrepreneurial, more pro-growth because you have to have growth and spending discipline to fix this problem." 

And favorite line - when asked if he's considered running for President: "My head's not that big and our kids are just too small."

~ G

A Better Politician? An excellent piece on Paul Ryan

How do you train or raise up a better politician?  Brian J. Bolduc, an economics editorial writer for the Harvard Crimson, published a solid piece on the topic and Paul Ryan.  Read the following excerpts, then head to the Harvard Crimson to read the piece in its entirety.  Here are some excerpts:

- Mr. Ryan has proposed a “Roadmap for America’s Future,” which even the president considers “a serious proposal.”

- Individualism is far more pro-human than collectivism; I think Hayek did a great job of showing that,” Mr. Ryan said.

- “You shouldn’t be embarrassed by the tea parties. They are people fed up with big government. That is something that every conservative should be comfortable with…It’s more of a snobbish thing. If you’re trying not to be associated with tea parties, you’re not prepared to intellectually defend your ideas.”

- When I asked whether he should accept the fact that Democrats won the last election and stop writing bills that die in committee, he objected: “So we should surrender our principles? I think we owe it to people to give them an alternative. The reason my plan is not going anywhere is because Democrats control Washington. I’m not prepared to accept that as a permanent condition. You don’t get the climate of change without giving a principled detailed alternative.”

Want more?  Read the whole piece here. 

More on Paul Ryan

If you haven't already noticed, I really like Paul Ryan.  From the first time Darling and I saw him (on Election Night 2008 giving the Republican response to Obama's win), we liked him.  He's got the right ideas for the GOP.  He's a rising star and one to watch.  My hope and prayer is that he doesn't blow it.

Every time he gives a speech or is on the air, I think about posting, but manage not to do so.  I don't want to run into copyright infringement by reposting his speeches.  What I will say is if you are on Facebook, become a fan of Paul Ryan.  Every time he's on the air or gives a speech, he posts it.  If you become a fan, it'll pop up right on your feed.  I'm saying it here: He's one to watch.

Here's how to follow him on FB.

Of course, while you're on FB, follow me!  

~ G

Latest Thoughts from Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan's thoughts on the new Health Care law and what needs to happen next.  This was published in the New York Times. 

March 26, 2010

Op-Ed Contributor

Fix Health Reform, Then Repeal It

By PAUL RYAN

Washington
ON Thursday night, Congress sent to President Obama the reconciliation package to remove some of the embarrassing provisions in his signature legislative achievement, health care reform. But a serious fix for what ails health care in America will entail far more than merely tweaking the new law of the land; we will need to... finish reading this article here.

Paul Ryan Interview with Politico

Paul Ryan discusses his take on the Health Care bill that passes Sunday.  Here's the transcript and here's the video of the last third of the interview.

Highlights of the interview:

•  Yeah, so they do a lot of double counting so there’s lots of savings that come into this law that are being counted twice. And so if I could show you this chart real fast – let me show you, is this the right angle here? So they claim it’s $138 billion dollars in deficit reduction. They take premiums from a new entitlement called The Class Act. The Class Act is new long-term care insurance entitlement which, by the way, the chief actuary of Medicare says is already unsustainable, will not be paid for fully. They take $70 billion in premiums that are supposed to go toward paying that insurance and they use it to pay for this new healthcare bill. Then they take $53 billion dollars and after Social Security taxes, which are supposed to go toward paying Social Security benefits, and put that into this new entitlement. CBO is also telling us it’s going to cost $71 billion dollars in discretionary appropriations to run and fund various discretionary programs to implement this new law.

• They’re also saying $398 billion dollars from a Medicare trust fund will not go to Medicare solvency, that’s tax increases in Medicare cuts; that will instead go toward funding this new program.

• The Speaker three days ago said that they’re going to pass what we call a Doc Fix. Medicare doctors are going to get cut 21 percent in April unless that’s prevented. She is saying in April we’re bringing a bill to the floor to do that. We asked the CBO to include that in this bill because that was included in these earlier versions of the bill.

• This is a government takeover of our healthcare system. It is the government basically running the entire healthcare system, turning large insurers into de facto public utilities, depriving people of choice, depriving people of options, raising people’s prices, raising taxes when we need new jobs. And they’re taking all this money out of Medicare and they’re not using it to make Medicare more solvent, they’re treating Medicare like a piggybank to fund this other entitlement. And I don’t think people on Medicare are going to look too kindly on that. 

• I said look we’ve got to be adults about this. This is a serious situation, this isn’t something that we politicize. This is something if we start making, we shout things, yes in basketball games you hear things like this. We don’t do that. We’re grown ups. Look, my favorite kind of people up here are people who believe in something, people who are passionate about their beliefs and fight for their beliefs and are sincere about that. 

• Now the people running the government right now, I believe are people who are very left of center who believe we should replace the American idea with this kind of cradle to grave society. They think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t think they’re evil, I don’t think they’re sinister. I just think they’re wrong and I think they’re really liberal. So to me don’t hate these people, don’t treat them in such a way. I engage on debate on the facts and the merits and have a tenacious debate but treat one another with respect. That is the way I was raised. I think that’s the way we ought to be.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34844.html#ixzz0j1SJxiL5

In Line with Charles Krauthammer

Wow.  You know I'm thinking right when Charles Krauthammer and I agree.  Again.   He called Paul Ryan a rising star.   Oh, and I also heart Charles Krauthammer.  He's brilliant.  Sign up to my Twitter feed to read more!

I've already written about Paul Ryan here and here.

I Still Heart Paul Ryan

Here's his take on last night's Health Care Bill (debacle) passage:

Read the interview on National Review Online.

Sporting a Little Crush

I freely admit it. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is a cutie and a smartie. Oh, how I hope he doesn't do something foolishly scandalous. In the meantime, read Ryan's take on health care.

Intrigued? Read more about him on the House of Representatives site.