Tag Archives: Paul Ryan

Why Democrats Won’t Pass A Budget

Harry Reid

It’s been years since the senate has passed a budget; we’re going on 5 now.  And if you wanted to know why that is, you have to look no further than these two articles from The Hill.

First, Paul Ryan gettin’ it done:

Ryan, the former Republican vice presidential candidate who chairs the House Budget Committee, will release his 2014 budget on Tuesday. He’s expected to outline a plan to balance the budget in 10 years.

And why does this contribute to the reasons democrats won’t pass their own budget?

Senate Democrats promised Monday to make Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) new budget a focal point of their 2014 campaigns.

Democrats argue changes to Medicare and other spending cuts outlined by Ryan will pay political dividends for their Senate candidates, who face a difficult 2014 landscape.

“The Ryan budget will be a gift that gives throughout the 2014 cycle for Democrats,” pollster Geoff Garin said on a Monday call hosted by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

And now over to the article describing progress on the senate’s budget:

Senate Democrats say they will soon pass their first budget in four years, but it is proving a test.

Disputes over tax cuts, spending reductions and entitlement reform all present challenges to Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

One reason Senate Democrats did not pass a budget bill for the past four years was that they wanted to avoid unpopular votes to cut spending and hike taxes.

Leadership aides say Democrats from red states are less nervous now.

“The 2012 election showed that being in favor of revenue does not tar and feather you as a tax-and-spend liberal,” one aide said.

For the democrats, being elected to public office is the whole of the point.  There is no effort to govern or lead, only to win the next election.

Paul Ryan submits a budget and the democrats do nothing but “run against” the “gift that keeps giving.”  Yet when it comes time to pass their own budget, we get nothing because they are afraid to make the tough decisions.

Not surprising really.

Spending Cuts

Before the compromise that pushed the sequestration out 3 months, I was in favor of allowing the cuts to take place.  I know that the result would have been recession but it would have been short and only technically accurate.  In reality the cuts would strengthen the economy and we would find ourselves better off.

However, the compromise isn’t such a bad thing.  On the one hand it forces the senate to actually take up a budget AND we still can let the cuts take place.

But are we serious?

“I think the sequester is going to happen,” Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget panel and the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, told the NBC program “Meet The Press.”

House Republicans, most of whom had strongly opposed any tax rate increases in the “fiscal cliff” debate, have now started to shift their focus away the issue of tax increases and toward the spending cuts.

“We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those cuts with others and they’ve offered no alternative,” Ryan said.

I hope that this means the republicans are serious.  It’s very clear that, whether Obama really has capital or not, he THINKS he does, and isn’t going to negotiate.

Fine.

Time to take our medicine.

Biden And Ryan – Vice Presidential Debate

I have to admit that I tuned into the debate late; I was watching the football game and only was able to play catch up.  Additionally, I admit to being a member of the “Ryan is going to kick his ass” club after the Romney-Obama debate last week.

That said.  Here Goes.

Biden won.

The take away from the Presidential debate was that Obama didn’t call out Romney on perceived lies and that he didn’t exert himself in regards to the moderator.  Further, I get the feeling that folks didn’t think that Obama “spoke to them.”

Biden delivered on all accounts.  Joe was aggressive, he called bullshit when he saw it [right or wrong] and he drove the conversation.  Further, it is clear, starkly clear, that Biden has two advantages over Ryan:

  1. He is incredibly more comfortable in the rough and tumble debate format than Ryan.
  2. His foreign policy experience dwarfs Ryan’s.

Obama was criticized for letting Romney control the conversation, for “lying” and for being less than aggressive.  Biden rang the bell on all counts.

I think people will resonate with that.

With that said, Biden looked like a fool; he was openly laughing and smirking the entire time.  He played the part of the ass.  It turned me off, but the rest of the folks?  We’ll see.

My prediction?

Biden by 5 points.

That Didn’t Take Long: Obama Attacks Ryan

It took team Obama about 15 minutes to release the hounds.  However, to be fair, he probably had these ads lying in wait for each of the top choices.

Let’s take a look:

  1.  The economy crashed due to government policies that induced banks to lend money to people who had no hope of paying those loans back.
  2. BAM!  Class warfare at it’s finest.  I’ll have to look at the plan first though.  But if the analysis is anything like the TPC, there may be a bit of a partisan bias.
  3. We clearly don’t need more college graduates.  Or, at teh very least, we need fewer of the “soft” degrees and more of the “hard” degrees.  Clean energy – meh.  Clean energy should be given the same breaks as traditional energy.  But let’s not move to #4 without more class warfare.
  4. Yes.  Medicare as we know it is broken.
  5. I’ll have to check on that.  Not sure what he’s talking about.

2012 Election: Obama 281 Romney 257

Which really, isn’t that bad.  Then again, I’m out on a limb with Virginia and Colorado while Obama is pretty much a lock in every state going blue in the map above.  The default leanings when you pull up the map have Michigan and Wisconsin as toss-ups; I don’t think there’s a chance they break for Romney – though you would think his dad could help in Michigan.  I think Obama will carry the big Ohio and Pennsylvania states with Florida going for Mitt.  Like I said, Virginia might be wishful thinking.  However, only PPP has Obama ahead by more than 4.

The good news?  If my “out-on-a-limb” picks hold Romney would only need to steal a single state like Michigan, Ohio or Pennsylvania.  Or maybe the republican governors in Wisconsin and Iowa can deliver their states for Romney.  With Ryan on the ticket, he may actually pull Wisconsin over.  If he does and the rest holds, that gives Obama a 271 to 267 win.

Pretty close.

Romney Picks Ryan And Other Stuff To Think About

So he picked Ryan.  I think it’s a fine choice but maybe not the strongest one he could have made.  I’m glad that he didn’t pick Rubio.  Rick is too new, is only a Senator and really would have smacked to pandering.   The other pick I was afraid of was Rice.  I like her but she would have been a massive gamble.  She’s pro-choice -which is what it is- and that would have turned off a ton of the base.  Further, she could be seen a doubly pandering.

High gain high risk.

I would have preferred a governor.  Paulenty, Christie, Daniels, Jindal or McDonnell.  I think any of those 5 would be solid solid picks.  [If Obama wins the Republican primary is going to be an All Star team].

I think Ryan brings a conservative Tea Party rock and roll star, he brings youth and enthusiasm and brings a degree of expertise in matters financial.  However, he also brings the Ryan plan.  A plan that has been an easy target for democrats.  And a plan that may negatively sway indies and the elderly.

Will he make a difference?  Probably not.  But if his team can influence the Romney team that you have to be a little looser, a little more hip and a little bit more aggressive, then that would be a good thing.

Additionally, a few things are also clear.  In the coming days and for the rest of the campaign we’re gonna hear the democrats roll out all kinds of ads and speeches on the following themes:

  • War on the Middle Class – See also “Decline of the”
  • The gutting of Medicare and Medicaid
  • Tax breaks for the wealthy
  • Income disparity
  • The Ryan Plan itself

It should promise to be a great campaign!

Do Democrats Lie?

Most certainly, however, I am sure they are not alone.  But I can’t blame ’em.  Really.  They’re just a victim of the tribalism going on in Washington.

So, specifically, Democrats labelled Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan as one that would “end Medicare as we know it.”  And they defend this statement thusly:

“The very definition of the Medicare program is a national health insurance program for seniors which House Republicans would abolish under their budget,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in an earlier rebuttal of Politifact’s analysis of the Ryan plan.

And additionally:

“It seems foolish to have to parse the meaning of the word ‘end,’ but if there’s a program, and it’s replaced with a different program, proponents brought an end to the original program,” liberal blogger Steve Benen wrote at the Washington Monthly. “That’s what the verb means.”

Okay, but the silliness is obvious.  Using this logic any time any program is changed, even by the slightest bit, the old existing plan would “end” and the new plan, complete with all it’s new language, would be the new plan.

Wanna change the test scoring system in public education?  Well, go ahead, but be aware that you are “ending public education as we know it”.

Wanna increase the speed limit on I-40 from 60 to 65?  Okay, but be prepared to defend how you are “ending the federal interstate program as we know it.”

Absurd, truly.

And I am not alone.  Politifact has named the Democrats charge the “Lie of the Year”.

Republicans muscled a budget through the House of Representatives in April that they said would take an important step toward reducing the federal deficit. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the plan kept Medicare intact for people 55 or older, but dramatically changed the program for everyone else by privatizing it and providing government subsidies.

Democrats pounced. Just four days after the party-line vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a Web ad that said seniors will have to pay $12,500 more for health care “because Republicans voted to end Medicare.”

Rep. Steve Israel of New York, head of the DCCC, appeared on cable news shows and declared that Republicans voted to “terminate Medicare.” A Web video from the Agenda Project, a liberal group, said the plan would leave the country “without Medicare” and showed a Ryan look-alike pushing an old woman in a wheelchair off a cliff. And just last month, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a fundraising appeal that said: “House Republicans’ vote to end Medicare is a shameful act of betrayal.”

After two years of being pounded by Republicans with often false charges about the 2010 health care law, the Democrats were turning the tables.

PolitiFact debunked the Medicare charge in nine separate fact-checks rated False or Pants on Fire, most often in attacks leveled against Republican House members.

Now, PolitiFact has chosen the Democrats’ claim as the 2011 Lie of the Year.

Go read the whole thing.  There are worse things to do on December 20th.

The Middle Class – Part I

For a long time now I’ve been interested in “The Middle Class”, or as I call it, The Big MC™ .  What it is, what it means and how it’s been used over the years. My fascination comes from two sources; my own personal experience and then the use of The Big MC in today’s Liberal shaping of the term.

America’s greatest allure is that through the promise of Liberty any individual is able to achieve that goal of leaving the days of back breaking labor to the days of our fathers and giving a better life to our children. It is our birthright as a nation that our citizens are able to have a better tomorrow rather than a better yesterday. It’s our hope, our collective yearning, that our drive to and from the salt mines will bring better days, has framed our national dialogue.

It is both ironic and horrifying that the same should be used as a wedge to drive us apart and serve to prevent that very dream from it’s manifest.

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