Paul Ryan (1970- ) is an American Congressman from Wisconsin and Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president in the 2012 election. He is also the Republican’s top budget man in Congress. A geek with charm, he is one of the few who understands the budget inside out and can put it into English.
Ryan is hard right but his district in Wisconsin is centre right – a 90% white district that voted for Obama in 2008. Since his university days Ryan has spent most of his life in Washington, not Wisconsin. Wall Street money keeps him in office.
Ryan wants to take from the poor to give to the rich. He would gravely weaken the safety net that Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson put in place in the 1930s and 1960s so that he can cut taxes for the rich and keep defence spending high. Among Republicans all but ten are for the Ryan budget.
Ryan is rich. He is worth $5 million (166,000 crowns). He made his money the old-fashioned way: he married into it. His family lives in a mansion in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. When the General Motors plant there closed in 2009, unemployment went through the roof. Ryan did little.
Ryan is not honest. Not even by Fox News standards. After his speech at the Republican convention they ran a piece which said that Ryan:
set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.
Ryan had a black girlfriend at university. But the NAACP gives him 10 out of 100 on his civil rights voting record.
Ryan is a practising Catholic. But while the bishops like his extreme stand against abortion, they call the Ryan budget immoral. It is unnecessarily cruel to the poor and hungry. For example, it cuts food stamps rather than support for agribusiness.
Ryan is a follower of Ayn Rand. Rand saw selfishness as a virtue and condemned Christianity for wanting to help the poor. Ryan has read all her books and gives “Atlas Shrugged” (1957) as Christmas gifts:
I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are.
Ryan is a fan of Rage Against the Machine. But Rage guitarist Tom Morello says Ryan is part of the machine he rages against:
You see, the super rich must rationalize having more than they could ever spend while millions of children in the U.S. go to bed hungry every night. So, when they look themselves in the mirror, they convince themselves that “Those people are undeserving. They’re … lesser.” Some of these guys on the extreme right are more cynical than Paul Ryan, but he seems to really believe in this stuff.
Ryan is endorsed by the NRA. When asked about gun laws and violent crime in cities, he said:
The best thing to help prevent violent crime in the inner cities is to bring opportunity in the inner cities. Is to help teach people good discipline, good character.
Sources: Rolling Stone, Examiner.com, The Root, Media Matters, The New Republic, Fox News, Mediaite, New Yorker, ThinkProgress.
See also:
In other words, the quintessential right wing loony. I see why Romney likes him so much.
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I am going to take a vow of Internet and television and newspaper silence till I have read the transcript for the Biden-Ryan debate and written a post on it.
I think with the debate last week I was overly affected by the style as opposed to the substance and by the insta-punditry on Twitter and cable news.
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So, these two clowns are cut from the same cloth. The two of them running the country is very scary.
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rich?? by what standard? he is a mere millionare that is no longer a huge accomplishment there are 1,000 new millionares every day. that also is not uber rich. who cares about his income what are his policy’s . if anything having money is more of a qulaifier than education or intent.
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This guy is the shining example of Neoconservatism at its worst. Him and Mittens are both clones from the extreme right wing machine and nothing more.
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[…] Abagond does the short and sweet summation on Ryan. […]
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@ Legion
My philosophy is that since I am neither a scholar nor a journalist, anything I can find out anyone can. This is the age of Google, after all.
In any case, I added the sources at the end of the post, the ones I can remember.
The bishops in question were the US Conference of Bishops:
http://www.examiner.com/article/united-states-conference-of-catholic-bishops-paul-ryan-s-budget-and-ayn-rand
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/12/463211/catholic-leaders-ryan-budget/
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Abagond:
You voted for Obama/Biden, Why? Paul Ryan made Biden look like a chump. All the black liberals can talk smack as much they want, they look dumber and dumber by the day. I’m not biting my tongue anymore with ya’ll, our race is in the pits because of the Dixiecrats/Democrats. And, Tyrone is the crazy brotha…Hell No!
Tyrone
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How do policies aimed at the 1% help Black people?
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^ They don’t. Capitalism is a great hotbed for racism and other forms of oppression. As for Ayn Rand, I thnk it’s funny that she worshipped a serial killer ( http://exiledonline.com/paul-ryans-guru-ayn-rand-worshipped-a-serial-killer-who-kidnapped-and-dismembered-little-girls/) and worshipped selfishness and yet when one of her lovers applied her values to their relationship (he cheated on her behnd her back), she lost her mind and threw that man out of her cult. The resurgence of her ideas in the United States is a byproduct of the ongoing class war. The plutarchs, oligarchs, and their slavish supporters believe that they should be treated like demigods and how dare people tell them otherwise. They must be opposed before they drag the whole planet down into the gutter.
P.S Mitt Romney’s father relied on welfare (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/09/19/161409916/welfare-wasnt-always-a-dirty-word-in-the-romney-family) and Paul Ryan benefited from Social Security (http://www.usnews.com/news/campaign-2008/articles/2008/07/23/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-paul-ryan). If this were really about the national debt and the deficit they wouldn’t be so gung-ho to go to war with Iran. This, along with Romney’s 47% comment, only shows that what they want to do is further consalidate power amongst their class, the ruling class. I guess it’s the USA’s turn for austerity measures because hey they worked so well in countries like Greece and Spain.
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I think Paul Ryan is dangerous and not good for this country.
He and Mitt Romney feel women, minorities and poor people aren’t important. Plus he is very radical rightwing person. I saw how radical of a rightwing nutjob he was when I was watching the Vice presidental debate. SMH, Ayn Rand is crazy, I am not shocked that he endorses her at all.
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So @ Abagond, where did you find proof of his so called african queen? I mena Ryan can die in a fire for all I care lol! But he is not unattractive… hahhaa jk. So I will believe it when I see proof.
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“Kfennec
So @ Abagond, where did you find proof of his so called african queen?”
Linda says,
Article about Ryan’s x-girlfriend
http://www.rightentertainment.com/?p=6382
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@ Kfennec
I read about it in The Root:
http://www.theroot.com/blogs/paul-ryan/does-paul-ryans-black-girlfriend-matter
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