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1/26/2011
Ryan: The principles that guide us
What adjective would you use to describe Speaker Boehner at the SOTU? Tired, challenged, bored, frustrated, cynical, insolent, skeptical, unbending, sour, disengaged, almost disrespectful, thoughtful? I couldn’t figure it out – what say you?
Paul Ryan was unexpectedly nervous and stiff. Well, I say unexpectedly. Gosh, he’s been in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers in any given week. Or millions? Ryan is used to this public presentation stuff. But still… a pretty darn high pressure moment.
The high point for me was his straightforward outline of convictions:
… I’d like to share with you the principles that guide us. They are anchored in the wisdom of the founders; in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence; and in the words of the American Constitution.
They have to do with the importance of limited government; and with the blessing of self-government.
¬¬ We believe government’s role is both vital and limited – to defend the nation from attack and provide for the common defense … to secure our borders… to protect innocent life… to uphold our laws and Constitutional rights … to ensure domestic tranquility and equal opportunity … and to help provide a safety net for those who cannot provide for themselves.
We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and individual responsibility.
We believe, as our founders did, that “the pursuit of happiness” depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government.
Limited government also means effective government. When government takes on too many tasks, it usually doesn’t do any of them very well. It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high.
The President and the Democratic Leadership have shown, by their actions, that they believe government needs to increase its size and its reach, its price tag and its power.
Whether sold as “stimulus” or repackaged as “investment,” their actions show they want a Federal government that controls too much; taxes too much; and spends too much in order to do too much.
And during the last two years, that is exactly what we have gotten – along with record deficits and debt – to the point where the President is now urging Congress to increase the debt limit.
We believe the days of business as usual must come to an end. We hold to a couple of simple convictions: Endless borrowing is not a strategy; spending cuts have to come first.
Heritage does an excellent job highlighting the conservative antitheses to Obama’s SOTU proposals. My favorite of the many excellent paragraphs comes from Chuck Donovan, a Heritage Senior Research Fellow at the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.
The State of the Family
This evening’s State of the Union address was notably devoid of discussion of one of the issues that could be fairly characterized as “decades in the making,” the phrase President Obama used to introduce a litany of problems facing the country. Evidence continues to accumulate that the persistence of problems like poverty and welfare dependency is strongly associated with the rise in the number of children born out of wedlock.
To a striking degree, the challenges of the federal budget are linked to and aggravated by the fracturing in family budgets brought on by the failure of families to form and government policies that neglect the best adhesive to repair that fracturing – the bonds of marriage. The state of American families went unmentioned tonight but it is vital that this conversation, and its implications for the State of the Union, happen with a new urgency at the national level.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
I'd not get too excited about Paul Ryan until you read this from an independent think tank. Seems he's interested in protecting only the top 3%. Cut taxes at the top and add them to the bottom. No thanks.
Jack Lohman (Wed Jan 26 07:39:19 2011)
Jack's reference is right on. It is not possible to think through Ryan's logic without referencing Michele Bachmann's presentation. If you want to win folks over why not start with honesty. She cleverly arranged her charts in two year segments. By doing so, she eliminated 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency. If the chart were truly representative it would demonstrate the upward trend of the deficit and additionally portray the fact that Obama inherited a difficult reality created by the republican controlled congress and executive branch. Jo, we cannot make progress without beginning with honesty. Ryan, the teaparty, and the rank and file Republicans are the masters of misdirection and disinformation. Carl Rove's strategy is as responsible for the mess as any so called misguided leftist thinking. Rove believes that if you tell the lie time after time it will become the truth. The "liar liar pants on fire" folks would have a field day with last nights performance on both sides of the aisle.
billie (Wed Jan 26 08:27:54 2011)
Although Rep. Ryan may have had a slight "deer in the headlights" look, I think he did a fine job. His looking directly into the camera and using a conversational speech tone made me feel like he was speaking directly to me - 1:1. It is true that I have heard him make better and more powerful presentations on talk shows in the past. He could have been a lot more specific about what the Republicans want to do to get us out of this financial brink situation. He was "right on" in saying that the current economic situation did not happen overnight and it was not just one political party or one administration that caused it as the Dems are prone to do.
Lastly, he should have worn a green and/or gold tie to signify his support/pride in the Packers upcoming Super Bowl appearance. :)
BHM (Wed Jan 26 09:10:39 2011)
Ryan is right that "it was not just one political party," but he is part of the problem. And as long as our politicians (including Ryan) are on the payroll of the corporations who sent their jobs to China and India, please tell me why we are spending gobs of money to educate kids for jobs that no longer exist!
Jack Lohman (Wed Jan 26 09:21:20 2011)
So here's another from Citizen's for Tax Justice: GOP Response to SOTU Given by Paul Ryan, Author of "Roadmap" to Raise Taxes on 90% of Americans, Cut Taxes on Richest 10% of Americans, and Lose $2 Trillion Over Ten Years
Folks, I support zero taxes for corporations, because they just pass them on to consumers. But as long as our politicians are on the take, I don't want them making the decisions.
Jack Lohman (Wed Jan 26 09:32:58 2011)
I am disappointed that neither Obama nor Ryan simply said:
"The deficit reduction commission has recommended a balanced and comprehensive set of deficit reduction actions and principles which if adopted by this nation in their entirety will restore our fiscal health while preserving Social Security, Medicare and a strong Defense. I urge the Congress to adopt the Commission report in it's entirety and if so done I will sign it into law"
Ryan was a member of the commission what the heck for? The President appointed the Commission, what the heck for?
dave allen (Wed Jan 26 10:23:59 2011)
I'm certainly glad that you don't believe in corporate taxes, Jack, because your source certainly does. Every link I saw, except their own, describes this as a liberal group. The more I read the more I realized that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is just another liberal "think tank". Actually just the headline above the article told me that but I thought I'd give it a chance to make sense first. It didn't.
Billie, aren't you aware that the House has charge of all spending? The Democrats took over in January of 2006. I see a lot of "Liar, liar, Pants on Fire" posts right here. Or perhaps I should say, to get into politically correct speech, a whole lot of misinformation is being dissseminated.
C. R. Stevenson (Wed Jan 26 11:13:08 2011)
CR, I hope I've shown that my personal views are pragmatic rather than ideological. I believe that politicians should be taking zero cash from either corporate or personal taxpayers; only then will they be able to make a good business decision for the state or nation.
Jack Lohman (Wed Jan 26 11:30:38 2011)
Gee Whiz Jack, I am surprised that you claim the "Center" as an "independent think tank" and fail to mention it is a Liberal Think Tank
Go read what they are about on their own web site
http://www.cbpp.org/about/
Obviously, whether it is Ryan or anyone who wants tocut big government, They are against such measures.
Here is a charge for you Jack.
Do you believe that one man should have more votes than another ? ( he gets two, you get one)
Do you believe that one man should have special compensation and walk to the front of the line ? Or bypass TSA ?
Then consider what the term means
"Equal Justice for all"
Do you believe in it ?
Then please explain why taxes should be "unequal" ?
Not logical is it !
Rich
Rich Carlstedt (Wed Jan 26 12:16:22 2011)
I stand corrected if they are liberal, Rich. I should have posted something from Cato or Heritage or one of Wisconsin's right-wing non-partisan think tanks.
Indeed we should cut government by at least 20%, and we should cut spending for the special interest groups that fund the elections. What part of political bribery do you not understand?
All human persons should get one vote each, and corporations should get zero votes... whether they are votes cast or votes bought. And of course cutting the line is unfair, even for the wealthy and politicians. But they do it every day. And yes, I believe in "Equal Justice for all".
Oh gee, I am backed into a corner. Or am I? Yes, taxes should be paid "progressively," and the same tax formula should apply to 100% of the people (which it does). If you make a lot of money you are taxed progressively. If I move from being poor to being rich, my taxes go up.
Or are you suggesting that all residents be taxed the same, say, $20,000 per year regardless of salary?
Jack Lohman (Wed Jan 26 14:04:06 2011)
And if not, why not. They all get the same services, even if they unemployed!
Jack Lohman (Wed Jan 26 14:51:04 2011)
>>>>Then consider what the term means
"Equal Justice for all"
Do you believe in it ?
Then please explain why taxes should be "unequal" ?
Not logical is it !<<<<
I gotta get this straight...You think that equal justice is the same as equal taxes? Are you serious? Since when has income had much of any connection to justice or merit?
Dean Weichmann (Wed Jan 26 15:35:00 2011)
Krugman comments on Ryan;
Shiny Lazy People
A few further thoughts about the Ryan response to the SOTU, which was deeply revealing.
Again, let me focus first on this passage:
Just take a look at what’s happening to Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and other nations in Europe. They didn’t act soon enough; and now their governments have been forced to impose painful austerity measures: large benefit cuts to seniors and huge tax increases on everybody.
Imagine yourself in Ryan’s position. You’ve been chosen by one of America’s two great political parties to respond to the president of the United States. That’s a fairly awesome responsibility. And you’re going to make some blanket assertions about world events. Wouldn’t you make at least some effort to check whether those assertions are right?
Actually, if your whole public act is based on your supposed knowledge of the importance of fiscal responsibility, wouldn’t you long ago have made sure that you actually know something about the fiscal crises now taking place in Europe?
But no. I suspect that Ryan is honestly unaware that Ireland, far from being a spendthrift, was seen as a fiscal role model before the crisis. And that’s not hyperbole: in 2006 George Osborne, now Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, declared that
Ireland stands as a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking, and that is why I am in Dublin: to listen and to learn.
And I also suspect that Ryan is honestly unaware that the UK has not, in fact, experienced a debt crisis.
How can he be unaware of these things? The only explanation I have is intellectual laziness — why check the facts when you already believe that you have The Truth?
Let me also highlight another point from that passage: Ryan warns that if we don’t deal with our fiscal problems, we’ll have to raise taxes and cut benefits for seniors. So what can we do to reduce the deficit? Well, government spending is dominated by the big 5: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, and interest payments; you can’t make a significant dent in the deficit without either raising taxes or cutting those big 5. Defense is untouchable, says the GOP; so that leaves the entitlement programs. And 2.7 of the three entitlement programs are benefits to seniors (70 percent of Medicaid spending goes on seniors).
So let’s see: to avoid cuts in benefits to seniors, we must … cut benefits to seniors.
I’m reasonably sure that Ryan hasn’t thought any of this through.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
Dean Weichmann (Wed Jan 26 15:46:43 2011)
Jack
Thank You for the response.
I agree with you about political bribery. It shoulod stop.
The dirty secret is that most of these rich people care less about rates because of all the special deals they get.
Do you think Kerry or Warren Buffet care?
They have so many "Trusts" and other tax dodges, that they get away with murder. Yet, you never hear Pelosi scream about that ....why? ..because she gets sweetheart deals for her husband...remember minimum wage and the islands ??
Jack I agree that there is too much sweetheart stuff. The way to kill it is to eliminate ALL trusts and special packages and make everyone pay the same..
Dean
I thought being an American means we are all treated the same !
You must feel differently ?
Do you want a rich guy going into the army and automatically getting an officers rank ?
No is the answer. In OUR Country all people are equal and should be treated the same, yet Liberals constantly berate rich people and demand more from them. That is not what America is all about fellows. As soon as one class or race or group of citizens is treated differently, you are going against the constitution. You can alibi all you want about them having more money, and "can afford it" but that has nothing to do with it..WE ARE AMEERICANS and no where in the Constitution does it allow unequal treatment..show me !
Oh by the way fellows, did you notice that Obama's Health bill does not apply to members of Congress or Government Employees...Is that equal treatment ?
Rich Carlstedt (Wed Jan 26 23:24:31 2011)
Yea, Rich, but none of this is going to happen as long as the Fat Cats are funding the elections and own our politicians. The federal elections were funded by the top 1% of our population. This should be both the left's and the right's number one issue. Nothing else matters until we clean up our corruption, and I hope we do it before the rebellions hit America.
Jack Lohman (Thu Jan 27 07:35:20 2011)
Rich Would you expect the elite to be under the same rules as the peasants? Never have been. After all a congress person can retire after serving part of ONE term - not even a full term - and get the FULL amount of retirement benefits as someone in Congress who has been there 40 years. In the private sector, you are entitled to benefits based on the number of years worked and often salary/wages earned. What is good for ruled is not good enough for the rulers it seems.
bhm (Fri Jan 28 09:43:53 2011)
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