Ryan shines as GOP seeks vision: His youth, talent, conservative politics excite party leaders

[undeterred]

By Craig Gilbert of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Apr. 25, 2009

Washington - Fifteen years ago, Paul Ryan was moonlighting as a waiter at a Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill.

Today, he's one of his party's most touted young politicians, a GOP point man on the economy and a darling of the conservative movement.

"I have strong opinions, strong ideas," says Ryan, 39, the Janesville congressman whose favorite hobbies include reading budget documents and hunting deer. "But I'm not looking to become some famous conservative movement leader. I just don't see that as my role. That's not my thing. I want to be a policy leader."

Ryan's emergence this year can be measured in cable news appearances (20), op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times (three), and mentions by Dick Cheney as one of the GOP's emerging leaders (two).

Ryan was the keynote speaker in Washington two months ago at the nation's biggest conservative gathering, the Conservative Political Action Conference. He wrote the chief Republican alternative to the Obama budget. His ability to churn out plans and papers, his media skills and his pro-market zeal have thrust him to the vanguard of the party on the economic issues that dominate today's political debate.

"I'm not going to say any Republican is powerful anymore. We don't have powerful Republicans. But there's no one quite in his space," says Vin Weber, a GOP strategist, lobbyist and former Minnesota congressman.

"He is not just a potential future majority leader, he's a potential speaker of the House," says Ed Feulner, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/43705712.html

A geeky head for numbers

Republican in Obama land

Will it play in Janesville?

Respectful disagreement

Not a culture warrior

Learning from gay friends

Ayn Rand economics

Fast rise in the House

What does he want?

Bowhunting family man


:scared:

[dragonlady]

1. My first reaction

:puke:



:hi:

[undeterred]

3. It was a tough choice between

:scared: and :puke: but these statements pushed me towards the former:

"At the Rand celebration he spoke at in 2005, Ryan invoked the central theme of Rand's writings when he told his audience that, "Almost every fight we are involved in here on Capitol Hill  . . .  is a fight that usually comes down to one conflict - individualism versus collectivism."

In that struggle, Ryan argued that shifting Social Security (which he called a "collectivist system") toward personal investment accounts was not only good policy, but would change the political landscape, according to a recording of the event made by its host, The Atlas Society.

"If we actually accomplish this goal of personalizing Social Security, think of what we will accomplish. Every worker, every laborer in America will not only be a laborer but a capitalist. They will be an owner of society.  . . .  That's that many more people in America who are not going to listen to the likes of Dick Gephardt and Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, the collectivist, class-warfare-breathing demagogues," said Ryan.

:hi:

Anyone who celebrates Ayn Rand is scary to me. :scared:

[TheMightyFavog]

4. Geeze, Ryan spoke at a gathering of sociopaths?

Very scary.

[Viking12]

5. The irony is that he doesn't even recognize that corportaions are "collectivist systems" too

We have very few individually owned businesses in the day and age. If you invest in the stock market you are entering into a "collectivist system".

[midnight]

2. That shine you refer to is Paul Ryan's mirror vision of continuing Bush's

Tax policies. The ones where he wants to: "Implement a pro-growth tax policy. Instead of raising tax cuts, "he would lower taxes to 25% for the top marginal income tax rate, and combine all the other brackets to a 10% tax rate on the first $100,000 for couples. He would also lower the top corporate tax rate, and eliminate the capital gains tax. This would increase, rather than suppress, the incentives to work, save, and invest."

"Fix the entitlement crisis. Congressman Ryan has a bold Road map for America’s Future which would put Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on an affordable path without raising taxes. Even before the impact of the economic crisis is taken into account the debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 40.8 percent today to more than 290 percent in 2050 if no action is taken. Any successful economic recovery plan must not ignore the long-term budgetary issues." http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/04/it%E2%80%99s-time-for-a-pro-growth-economic-policy/

I wish the entitlement crisis that Ryan's bold road map talks about would be fixing the woefully underfunded vet's health care funding ,because they already have payed for this benefit via giving their youth and talent to their country. However, Paul Ryan's Gop speech tells us these vets are not entitled, as their entitlement will be sacrificed by paying for the tax cuts with a five-year spending freeze on all non-defense and veteran’s health care funding.

Chris Matthews after hearing Paul Ryan lay out his plans likens this shiny man to Hoover, and say's his plans do not make sense.

"No, because it sounds very much like Hoover. This is a doctrine which was tried in 1932 and failed. In a period of international deflation, the worst thing you can do is join in the deflation by cutting spending."http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/04/01/gop-freeze/

[Robbie88]

13. Ahhh gotta love Paul Ryan's never ending crusade against "entitlement" spending...

Someone needs to break the news to Rep. Ryan that over the past eight years, the major contributions to the increased federal deficit came not from "entitlement" spending, but from the Bush tax cuts and funding for the two wars, all things which he's enthusiastically supported.

When's Paul going to take some responsibility for his contribution to this mess instead of just pointing fingers? The Republicans seem to always be preaching about "personal responsibility" and yet they're the last ones to take any sort of responsibility for their own votes and actions..

[undeterred]

6. ...a distant relative?

[Sabien]

7. was on a plane with him last week

someone asked him if he was going to run for governor, his reply "no, that's not the direction I want to go...I'm a policy guy"

I found it interesting that Kagen was on the same flight - I didn't see them exchange any words.

[undeterred]

8. He seems like he would be more interested

in Kohl's seat in 2012. Ryan hasn't spent much money campaigning for Congress in the past, but he bought some television ads last year when Krupp was running against him, even though she wasn't able to afford ads. Because of the shape of CD1 he reached both Madison and Milwaukee. I think he was trying to get his name out there to the rest of the state with his eye on the far horizon.

Edit: I found this bumper sticker pic while I was looking for his picture for an earlier post.

[undeterred]

9. I hope Kagen was thinking

I'm gonna kick Ryan's ass in 2012 :evilgrin:

[myrna minx]

10. I went to HS with him in Janesville, and I can tell you he's had his eyes

on the White House since way back when. The 1988 "reunion" committee schedules the reunions for the autumn, so he can glad hand. This began when he first ran in 1998. I've always known he'll be the dark horse, who "comes out of nowhere" to flummox the Dems. I've been saying this for years!

[undeterred]

11. He seems like a mismatch for his district.

I can actually understand why the wealthy socially conservative people living in CD5 keep electing Sensenbrenner. But CD1 has a lot of average working class people who I wouldn't expect to warm up to Ryan, unless they are voting just on his looks.

With his fiscal policy, he should be representing the Hamptons.

[Robbie88]

12. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the local media, at least here in Janesville, seems

to think the guy's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not to mention that it seems that his Democratic opponents never get enough backing financially...