Tag Archives: Roadmap for America

Commentary

Paul Ryan takes on Democrat Brad Sherman on the worsening economy

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Video is here – from Larry Kudlow’s show on CNBC. (8 minutes)

The Democrat blames Bush and calls for more government spending.

Here he is in Congress making his stand. (4 minutes)

The Veronique he mentions is Veronique de Rugy, whose work I blog about all the time.

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard is calling for Republicans to embrace Ryan’s Road Map for America.

Excerpt:

For Republicans, the Road Map authored by congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is the most important proposal in domestic policy since Ronald Reagan embraced supply side economics in the 1980 presidential campaign. It’s not only the freshest, boldest, and most comprehensive Republican thinking, it’s also the most relevant. If Republicans adopt the Road Map as their basic ideological blueprint, it offers them the prospect of a landslide in the midterm election this year, followed by victory in the presidential election in 2012.

For sure, that’s a lot of weight for a policy statement drafted by a 40-year-old House member to bear. But the Road Map is perfectly timed to deal with the crises of the moment: economic stagnation, uncontrolled spending, the deficit and long-term debt, soaring tax rates, health care, the housing problem, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

Yet Republican leaders are wary of endorsing it, and for understandable reasons.

He lays out three reasons why the Republicans should swallow their fears and embrace Ryan’s plan.

Here’s the third reason he lists:

The third reason is the Republican message (or the absence of one). In Pennsylvania, it was “send a message to Nancy Pelosi.” Voters declined. I like the Republican slogan that worked so well in 1946—“Had enough?” But a slogan is not a message. The Road Map is a message. The country is falling apart, we’re going broke, government is on a takeover binge, the economy is wobbling. The Road Map is the solution. That’s a pretty good message.

Those who tremble at the thought of pushing a big idea should remember the campaign of 1980. Reagan, who for years had warned of the evils of government spending and overreach, suddenly became the champion of an across the board, 30 percent cut in tax rates for individuals and business.

That was very risky. The elder George Bush called it “voodoo economics.” Democrats were certain the whopping tax cut would turn the country against Reagan. Quite the opposite occurred. Reagan would have defeated Jimmy Carter without it, but not by the 10 percentage points he actually won by. The tax cut showed Reagan was serious about reviving the economy and not at all a weakling like Carter.

It’s good to be a Republican when we have guys like Paul Ryan. Let’s put him in charge and implement his bold ideas.

Videos

Tragedy strikes! Paul Ryan is not going to run for President in 2012!

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The thing I like about Paul Ryan is that now matter how bad our problems, he has the answers.

But he’s ruled out running for President in 2012.

Excerpt:

Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican… is ruling out a 2012 run for president.

“I’ll give you as Shermanesque a quote as I can,” said Ryan.  “I am not going to run for president. I’m just not going to do it. My head’s not that big, and my kids are too small.”

but Sarah Palin likes him for President:

Over the weekend, Ryan was singled out for praise by Palin during her interview with “Fox News Sunday.”

Asked to handicap the potential Republican presidential field, Palin refrained from commenting on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, three Republicans actively weighing a White House run in 2012.

Palin said, however, that she was “very impressed” with Ryan before later adding that it would be “absurd” not to consider running for president herself.

“[W]e have some strong — some young Turks in this party,” said Palin. “Paul Ryan — I’m very impressed with Paul Ryan. . . . He’s good. Man, he is sharp. He is smart, articulate. And he is passionate about these commonsense solutions that America has got to adopt to get us on the right road.”

I don’t like Pawlenty, and Huckabee and Romney are not conservative enough either. Huckabee is too far left on economic issues and Romney is too far left on social issues. But Ryan is just right.

That quote about his head being too small and his kids not being big enough is at the end of this video:

He’s got his priorities straight.

Commentary

MUST-READ: WORLD magazine puts Paul Ryan on the front cover

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Rep. Paul Ryan

This is the best evangelical news magazine out there. The same one that profiled Michele Bachmann a while back.

Here’s the cover story. (H/T Muddling Toward Maturity)

Excerpt:

While a student at Miami University in Ohio, Ryan thought he’d become an economist. He read the likes of Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand and envisioned a life of theories. But he eventually learned that public policy is the arena where ideas really live or die. “That is what built this country—good ideas,” he says.Post-graduation stints as a speechwriter for Jack Kemp, at a conservative think tank, and as legislative director for Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas led to Ryan’s successful run for an open House seat in 1998. He was just 28.

After almost a decade of near anonymity in Congress, Ryan’s 2007 ascension as the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee gave him the staff resources and the clout to let out his inner economist. He now also is senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. From those perches he has crafted a roadmap to privatize Medicare and Medicaid, provide vouchers for many federal programs, replace employee-sponsored health insurance plans with individual tax credits, and impose tough controls on federal spending.

The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan number crunchers, determined that Ryan’s roadmap delivered on its promises of balanced budgets and smaller deficits (unlike its projections for Obamacare). Under current policies, the CBO concludes that the nation in 2080 will devote 34 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to government spending; under Ryan’s plan, the CBO predicts that federal spending in 2080 would fall to less than 14 percent of the GDP while the government would enjoy a 5 percent annual surplus. And all without raising taxes. In fact, Ryan proposes a flat tax of two rates: 10 percent and 25 percent.

Better read it quick, before it goes behind the pay firewall.

Lately, I have been busy working my way through the Indivisible e-book that the Heritage Foundation published. The e-book is about 85 pages long, and features leading fiscal and social conservatives, writing from the point of view that they do not normally adopt! In the e-book, Paul Ryan, a huge fiscal conservative, writes about the right to life. Check it out. I just ordered 5 more copies of Indivisible from the Heritage Foundation along with some of their new booklet on Regulations.