The Paul Ryan response to President Obama’s State of the Union was predictable—and then he was followed by the idiot Tea Bagger Michele Bachman.
In college, I wrote an essay on Paul Ryan. He’d only been around for a few terms at that point, but he struck me as someone who might be president one day. This was in the years before Obama arrived on the political scene. He had the policy wonk credentials that escaped many Republicans (who typically thrive on nationalism, division and a muscular military and Jesus), and he was young and handsome.
Ten years later, Ryan is the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and the go-to guy when the Republicans want to appear reasonable or appeal to the nostalgia of Barry Goldwater Republicanism.
Last night, however, Ryan had the thankless task of responding to Obama’s State of the Union address, and, as expected, he focused on the U.S. economy and federal budget. Naturally, he trumpeted the usual Republican line of slashing spending, reducing the national debt (good luck) and creating more jobs.
And while many Democrats will laugh at the Republican response, Ryan is definitely one Republican who deserves even the most partisan ear. He’s not an ideologue but more of a pragmatist.
Witness this excerpt from his speech:
“Americans are skeptical of both political parties, and that skepticism is justified — especially when it comes to spending. So hold all of us accountable.”
How often do you hear a Republican admitting they bleed federal dollars just the same as Democrats? Never. So hypocritical are Republicans that their sacred cow of Defense spending is hardly even considered an expenditure at all. Only the social programs built by progressives fall pray to their rhetoric and proposed budget cuts.
Ryan also struck the theme of American competitiveness, which Obama did as well in his address; though Ryan took a more deregulatory stance, even as Americans suffer the mistakes of Wall Street’s criminal behavior from the sub-prime mortgage implosion.
“Depending on bureaucracy to foster innovation, competitiveness, and wise consumer choices has never worked – and it won’t work now. We need to chart a new course.”
The overall theme of Ryan’s speech was the Republican standard of ‘limited government’ — that is, unless it comes to Defense spending.
January 26, 2011 at 11:51 pm, Cd said:
i think paul was trying to stress to americans how important it is to act now or else we are heading in the same direction of the struggling european nations whose debt has crippled them. america is on a slippery slope right now and we have to cut spending everywhere
February 15, 2011 at 7:52 pm, Dcuillo said:
There is an old movie called Alice in Wonderland. That is where the author of this article lives. In wonderland you can’t face impending disaster because you can’t see it. Instead, these folk defer to the Wizard of Oz where Buzz Words mask impending disaster; where massive unemployment is called recovery; where losing 25000 jobs producing light bulbs in Clevelean and moving those jobs to China so we can be forced to use poisenous manufacturing intensive bendy bulbs is a good thing. Come on d & T!!! Wakeup…
April 06, 2011 at 2:54 pm, Gacgy said:
Instead of taking money from medicare and medicad. Why not nationalize the oil companies and use oil profits to pay for these programs and pay down the national debt.