Tag Archives: medicare

The Rise of the Paul Ryan Republicans (and the Disappointment of 2012)

“Ok, the jokes over. When do we get to see our real candidates?” - every other conservative tweet on Twitter

I don’t mean to make today look like Paul Ryan day. It just so happened there were a bunch of stories aboot him. You had his response to Newt Gingrich. He was a runner-up for Time’s “Person of the Year.” He also announced a bi-partisan Medicare reform bill will Democrat Senator Ron Wyden. I don’t think there’s been this much attention paid to him since the last round of “Ryan for President” rumours.

It made me think about the people who actually decided to run for President, and the prevailing attitude that if nominated any of these people, that the “tea party” have failed. No one has failed. I think everyone just has to remember that most of our “heroes” have only been there for under two years.
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Paul Ryan Takes On Newt Gingrich All “Lincoln-Douglas” Stylee on Entitlements

Ever since I declared myself a Newt Gingrich supporter, the one criticism I keep hearing from supporters of his opponents (who think I didn’t read their first ten tweets) was the infamous “Meet The Press” interview where he referred to Paul Ryan’s plan entitlement reform plan as “right-wing social engineering.”

It was a total bungle on Newt’s part, and as a Paul Ryan Republican I nearly took out my television with a bazooka when I first heard it. Gingrich has walked it back a little bit, and while people keep trying to fuel a Gingrich/Ryan feud, I think that what we’re mainly arguing over isn’t specific policy as much as it messaging.

Here’s Newt:

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Paul Ryan is an Unmitigated Liberal and a RINO Extremist (The Path to Prosperity)

UPDATE: Here is the budget – “The Path to Prosperity” – in detail.

No, of course Paul Ryan isn’t really any of those things, but you have to admit…it got your attention. I’m a dick like that. :-) Besides, Rush Limbaugh calls him “substantively superb” & “politically brilliant,” and our job is to listen to what Rush tells us to.

Sarcasm aside, everyone knows I’m a huge fan of Ryan’s and wrote last week that our inter-family squabbling over last years budget won’t mean anything until next years budget, and it’s here! Rep. Ryan was on Fox News Sunday yesterday to preview it, and the Wall Street Journal has a preview. It’s what we were hoping it would be: four trillion in cuts, reforming Medicare/Medicaid, tax code schtuff, and apparently goes further than the Obama Debt Commission recommended. One side will love it, one side will hate it.

The question is…will Republicans have the balls to support it? We know the game plan. The Democrats will demagogue and play the fear card. Liberal political organizations like MSNBC News will parade every random example of “average folk” affected by budget cuts in front of a camera. We’ve seen it before, and the GOP has cowered each time from any substantial reform or work on the debt.

Here’s hoping they follow Rep. Ryan’s lead, who was asked if they were handing their opponents a “political weapon” ahead of the 2012 elections…

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All Eyes on Paul Ryan

There’s been a feud brewing – half legit, half ginned up by Democrats and the media – between Republican leadership and the “tea party” over the short term budget for this year the Dems never passed last year. One side wants gradual cuts and to play nice. The other thinks gradual cuts are for RINOs. Though the real fun starts next week when Budget Chairman Paul Ryan presents his long term budget next week.

Phillip Klein from the Washington Examiner lays it out like this…

If the Ryan budget is really good, achieves steeper cuts with a full fiscal year to work with and begins to address the entitlement crisis, it will help Republicans mitigate the backlash from the base should they compromise on the short-term budget measure. That’s not to say that it will eliminate any frustration from Tea Party groups and other conservative activists, but the GOP leadership would at least have an argument to make — that they came into office nearly halfway into the 2011 fiscal year so their hands were tied on this fiscal year, but when they had more time to work with, they presented a real plan to dig the nation out of its fiscal mess. Of course, if the Ryan budget disappoints, all bets are off.

The Hill has a preview of the budget and whether or not we’re going to finally get serious aboot reforming entitlements…

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Paul Ryan Wins the Week

Surprisingly, it’s not because he had a hit song written aboot him.

Just before Paul Ryan gave his response to the State of the Union, I had tweeted “If he pulled a Jindal, I’m gonna wild out and get violent.” This was a reference to Bobby Jindal giving a response two years ago that was so disastrous, this once “rising star in the party” hasn’t really recovered from as far as the “national stage” goes, which really sucked because his was a voice that we could have really used during the healthcare debate.

Thankfully, Ryan was more successful, especially as we’re getting into another debate on health care and are counting on him to be one of our leaders. The day after SOTU, he started to lead in his first hearing as chairman of the House Budget committee. The first thing we learned? Apparently two of the main promises that come with Obamacare are a bunch of hooey…

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