Via National Review:
It’s impossible to deny that there has been an
ideological component to Paul Ryan’s career in Washington.
Ryan has been an articulate spokesman for the idea of
smaller, less costly government, and he is perhaps Congress’s best-known
advocate of entitlement reform. There is no doubt that in his heart he prefers
markets to government control.
But...
(*PAUSE*)
...any effort to paint him as an inflexible ideologue
runs up against his demonstrable tendency toward pragmatism.
Yep!
Throughout his time in Washington, Ryan has been the
classic “half a loaf” type of conservative.
Meaning "half a RINO."
Time and again, he has shown that he is willing to
compromise and take far less than he had originally sought, as long as he is
moving incrementally in the direction he wants to go. You won’t find Ryan on
the short end of any 434-to-1 votes.
Less charitably... when push comes to shove he's been Boehner's bitch.
Less charitably... when push comes to shove he'll be
Romney's bitch if the GOP ticket wins in November.
One ray of hope... as VP he'll no doubt push Romney
"to the Right" and steamroll Boehner "to the Right."
Plus... if anything happens so that Romney can't finish his term... a President
Ryan would no doubt be the next best thing to a President Gingrich!
Take, for example, the infamous “Ryan budget.” Yes, it
cuts spending and reforms Medicare — though not Social Security — but it was
far from the most fiscally conservative budget offered by Republicans this
year.
(*NOD*)
Just compare Ryan’s budget with the one proposed by
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).
(*AMUSED SNORT*)
I know where Tanner is going... (and I'm right with him!)
Ryan’s budget takes 30 years to reach balance.
Yep...
(*SIGH*)
Paul’s would have balanced the budget in five years.
Yep!
(*BOTH THUMBS UP*)
Ryan would cut government spending by $4.1 trillion over
ten years.
Paul would have cut spending an additional $4 trillion
over that period.
Ryan’s budget didn’t touch Social Security.
Paul’s would have raised Social Security’s retirement age
and means-tested the program.
Now, that is a fiscally conservative budget[!]
In fact, Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Pat Toomey (R-PA)
also offered budget proposals that cut spending more than Ryan’s budget did.
(*SOLEMN NOD*)
Ryan was willing to push the envelope on spending cuts,
but only as far as he could while still getting the votes of "moderate" as well
as conservative Republicans. Yes, his budget is conservative, but it is hardly
radical.
And, thus... unfortunately.. hardly what is required.
(And that's the sad, pathetic, God's awful truth...)
According to the National Journal, Ryan works with
Democrats about as often as any Republican does. Most famously, he collaborated
with liberal senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to develop the latest iteration of his
Medicare reform plan. In fact, the evolution of Ryan’s Medicare plan shows both
the promise and the perils of his pragmatism.
Ryan’s first Medicare reform plan was fairly accurately
described as a voucher program: Seniors would each receive a support payment
roughly based on the current per-capita amount of Medicare spending. Wealthy
seniors would receive somewhat less, poor and sicker seniors somewhat more. The
Ryan-Wyden plan, on the other hand, abandons the voucher concept in favor of a
pure premium-support model.
(*SIGH*)
Yep... this is what usually happens when Republicans
"cooperate" with Democrats. Democrats are just better negotiators and
tougher politicians. The result? Most often instead of "The Best of Both
Worlds" bipartisan compromise - Washington style - gives "We The
People"... (*SIGH*)... "The Worst of All Possible Worlds."
Similarly, Ryan’s initial plan would have moved all
future seniors who are younger than 55 today into the new private-insurance
system, and traditional Medicare would be eliminated for new recipients.
However, by the time he launched the second iteration of his plan, he had
agreed to retain traditional Medicare as an option; seniors would be free to
choose between the traditional program and the premium-support model.
Yeah... great... one of the "choices" is to
stick with a bankrupt Ponzi scheme. Thank you Paul Ryan!
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Ryan also gradually agreed to loosen his proposal’s cap
on overall Medicare spending.
(*SNORT*)
(*SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
In his original plan, Medicare spending would not be
allowed to grow any faster than the overall economy. In Ryan-Wyden, the cap is
GDP growth plus a full percentage point. At the same time, the burden for
exceeding growth caps has shifted from seniors themselves, who would have been
required to pay more out of pocket under the original "Roadmap for
America’s Future," to providers, who will have their reimbursements
reduced under Ryan-Wyden.
(*STILL JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The budget passed by the House this year was in some ways
closer to Ryan’s original Medicare proposal than to the Ryan-Wyden plan. But
Ryan has clearly shown that he is willing to water down his ideas if doing so
garners Democratic support.
(*NOD*)
The downside of Ryan’s "pragmatism" is that each change has
weakened his proposal. His original proposal would have reduced Medicare
spending by far more than Ryan-Wyden. Given that even the most optimistic
scenarios show Medicare running $38 trillion in the red, Ryan’s retreat is not
a step in the right direction.
(*DEEP SIGH*)
Still, it might have been justified if Ryan’s willingness
to compromise had attracted substantial Democratic support...
Yes...?
But, in the end, it was the Democrats who refused to
budge.
(*JUST THROWING MY HANDS UP IN THE AIR*)
Senator Wyden was the only Democrat to join with Ryan,
and even he later backed away from his support under pressure from his caucus.
(*SNORT*)
(*SNICKER*)
Ryan’s "pragmatic" streak has also led him to cast many
votes that seem to contradict his reputation as a budget hawk.
Folks... the dumb prick bastard voted for TARP! He voted
for the $700 billion dollar bank bailout!
For God's sake, people... we need to be honest about who
Paul Ryan is... and who he's not.
Again... I support Romney-Ryan. With all their faults
it's vital that we get Obama out of office. And, yes... out of the two of them
I wish it were Ryan heading the ticket instead of Romney! All this said... 2012
is make or break for "our" America and for once in my life I refuse
to cut off my nose to spite my face!
Ryan would no doubt say that he won important concessions
in exchange for those votes — for instance, getting health savings accounts
included in the Medicare prescription-drug bill — or that the alternatives were
worse. But any way you look at it, those votes hardly make Ryan an inflexible
budget cutter.
All of this means that Ryan is not really the government slashing
savior envisioned by some conservatives.
It also means that he is not the ideological hard-liner
portrayed by some liberals.
He is, in fact, likely to disappoint his conservative
backers on occasion. But he may also be able to work across party lines to
really change the disastrous course we are now on.
(*NOD*)
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