There is a lore about Rep. Paul Ryan that goes like this: whether you agree with him or not, he is a principled, thoughtful, fiscal wonk. So if you do disagree with him, you have to at least respect him for his deeply held convictions. He is a True Believer.
It must follow, then, that when Ryan criticizes Obama over the stimulus spending that was used to turn around the catastrophic economic collapse that occurred during the end of the George W. Bush administration, it’s because he studied Keynesian economics in college—and rejected it. It must follow that the young economics major was exposed to many economic theories and philosophies, including those of Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, and (*snicker*) Ayn Rand. After much contemplation and fiscal navel gazing, our young hero internalized a passionate distaste for deficit spending, Keynesian stimulus, and “big government” solutions to unemployment.
Oh, sure…we saw a few cracks in the Ryan edifice this past week with the revelations that he actively sought millions in stimulus funding on behalf of his constituents. But that was a constituent services mistake that “should have been handled differently.” Because he’s a busy guy, and that’s just so not Paul Ryan.
The lore is entirely bullshit. Chris Hayes uncovers some video of Rep. Paul Ryan in 2002…when George W. Bush was asking Congress for a stimulus package:
Paul Ryan’s philosophy on stimulus spending is entirely this: If a Democratic President asks, I am vehemently against it. If a Republican President asks, I am passionately for it.
This is pretty much the same with all of the Congressional Republicans who voted in favor of unfunded wars, Bush’s deficit stimulus spending during a mild recession, not to mention record-breaking deficit spending during times of economic stability. These hypocrits, under Obama, turned around and squealed like stuck pigs and writhed in fiscal agony at the thought of deficit spending to avert economic calamity.
Paul Ryan is a fraud. He’s a hypocrite. He is an ordinary, lying Republican politician. He is a political opportunist.
His “principles” amount to gaining power for his political party—even if it means harming America.
“There is a lore about Rep. Paul Ryan that goes like this: whether you agree with him or not, he is a principled, thoughtful, fiscal wonk.”
Yeah, Ryan is very “serious”. So is our Galtian Lord, Mitt Romney.
Successful people. They’ll be found in the 1%. Successful people. As defined by Ayn Rand, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. The rest, the “masses”, they are “inferior”.
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, failure
Albert Einstein, failure
Mother Theresa, failure
Sally Ride, failure
The firefighter who saved you, failure
Your favorite school teacher, failure
Any non-1% mother and father, failures
Everybody posting here, left or right, failures
The American worker, failure
The contempt these people have for Americans is truly damned disgusting.
Ryan’s program is the same as every other Republican’s program: The 99% do all the work, fight all the wars, and pay all the taxes; the 1% get all the money, mansions, and sports cars.
The Republican idea of freedom is “the freedom to take from others without repercussions.” To them, “freedom” means no regulation of payday lenders, no consumer protection agencies, no FDA breathing down the necks of businesses that sell tainted food that sickens people.
Republicans aren’t against government. They’re only against government that helps anyone other than themselves. They’re in favor of government that buys bombers and missiles, and uses them to kill people. They’re in favor of government when it tortures people. They’re in favor of government that throws no-bid contracts their way. Any government that lines their pockets is good government; all other government is bad government.
What’s really amazing is how Republicans get 49% of the people to vote for a political party whose policies benefit only 1% of the people. They do this by falsely promising, “If you join us, you can be one of the 1%.” That’s a lie, because only 1% of the people can be the 1%. The rest are just being used.
26 years to balance a budget on the backs of the Middle Class. Destroy Medicare and Social Security in the process. What does he have to lose, nothing, his taxes go down, he has the best medical for life and the best retirement plan. Mind you all thanks to government. Hypocrite, fraud, liar, shameful. And don’t forget the killer, he’s against Freedom!
Roger we kind of said the same thing. You beat me to it and said it more eloquently.
Especially if it means harming America.
These people are all about crony capitalism. We saw it under Dubya, and it’s only gotten worse in the last four years. They are all about taking care of the 0.1% (aka “friends and family”), at the expense of anyone and everyone else. Harming America (and almost all Americans) isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.
They think if they yell “FREEEDUUMMM” loudly enough to justify their theft, people will buy in. And some will. We’ll see just how many in November.
@2 – yeah we all can be part of the 1%, that’s why we are all still part of the 99%, the 1% doesn’t seem to be growing to fast.
It’s time to talk about privatizing Social Security again, because that’s what Romney and Ryan support.
“Romney, in his book, No Apology, said he liked the idea of personal accounts. But, he wrote, ‘Given the volatility of investment values that we have just experienced, I would prefer that individual accounts were added to Social Security, not diverted from it, and that they were voluntary.'”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48717178
Roger Rabbit Commentary: We already have what Romney describes. They’re called IRAs, Roths, and 401(k)s. Would someone please tell Romney about this?
Ever wonder how workers survive after their unemployment benefits run out? They move from unemployment rolls to disability rolls.
“More than 1.6 million Americans have signed up for Social Security disability benefits since the recession … the ranks of workers collecting disability benefits have swollen to 8.7 million in April from 7.1 million in December 2007 …. Some of those workers are using disability benefits to replace expired unemployment benefits ….”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....74621.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that recessions shrink the labor force. Just as recessions weed out marginal businesses, they also weed out marginal workers — those whose skills are outdated, or are less able to perform because of age, injury, or illness. When they leave the workforce they have to go somewhere. The answer is they either retire or go on disability (which is another form of the same thing).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....tions-2012
That’s the problem with Congress Critters running for the White House – they have to answer for their record.
Oh my that’s the best you libtards got? The Bush stimulus was to recover from the 9-11 attack. And what happened? We had great growth until DUMMOCRAPTS got hold of Congress in 2007, and Barney Franks covering up of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae caught up to us! There is no comparison to Obummer’s Porkulus!
Keep screaming libtards! Keep waching the 2nd most useless network – PMSNBC!
Christ Spuddy, can you try to be just a little more infantile?
It’s like you never got any older once you hit 13.
Looks like Fraggy stepped to the plate and struck out! Must be his feeling were hurt over PMSNBC.
@11 Deathfrogg hit a home run.
@12 Puddy tries to be both pitcher & referee,
& FAILS MISERABLY just like homo-love idol GWB!
No doubt he’ll try again to ref his own plays in the next few posts …
Thank-you Darryl.
Here’s the thing. House Republican Leader Paul I’ll gladly give you a coupon for your Medicare Ryan has accomplished absolutely nothing, zero, nil in his 14 years in the House.
Paul Ryan is an absolute fraud, and his record is replete with examples.
Most Americans and many political junkies don’t know how full of shit this guy is.
Anyway, have a laugh and watch Fiore’s Deficit Hawkman
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....it-Hawkman
Ryan voted to raise the debt ceiling every time Bush requested.
Yawwwn.. Give this charlatan the hook.
Deep Thought:
As George W. Bush reversed our nation’s fiscal budget from surplus to unprecedented deficits, what did House Republican Budget committee member and now House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan have to say about it?
How hard would it be for a “deficit hawk” and “budget wonk” to see that increased spending on 2 wars required revenue to offset the expenditures?
The Dog that Didn’t Bark.
The standard hate GW Bush BDS is very alive and well 4 years later. Y’all are grasping for straws. First y’all were gleeful over Ryan and his Medicare stance. Then when the real facts came out past the libtard swill, Ryan had the upper hand.
Now it’s try the debt vote with Bush. Pathetic. Tomorrow morning we’ll see Soledad O’Brien with her TPM talking points on her barely watched CNN
moronmorning show. We’ll see how far this goes. This search was very enlightening on some new libtard sites I have tracked for HA libtard talking points. I have some reading this evening.And Fraggy… yer still out!
17 – See nothing but ODS symptoms in that swill.
Another diarrhea trail from HA bitchslapped buttspigot ylbitchslapped ylbuttspigot. Not once did Puddy mention Obummer. Yet, the blind fool known as ylbitchslapped ylbuttspigot, makes baseless claims as ever.
More diarrhea in another thread. Does anyone have a b u t t plug for ylbitchslapped ylbuttspigot? Does it go in his mouth or his ASS since he’s the HA arschloch… all ASS all the time!
Some libtard dullard blogger claimed the Bush Tax Cuts”to the rich” cost “$1,034,424,338,581”. Of course there was no link for proof! And other libtards just ate it up.
Remember when Ryan after reading Ayn Rand was inspired to learn about that “economics thing”?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....rices.html
i.e. he doesn’t know jack shit.
So how will the libtards blame the price of gas on Paul Ryan?
And how will the Republicans blame Obama for the refinery fire in California? Oh that’s right, they scoff at facts and make up the story to fit their ideology.
@ 22
Spuddy, we only blame the value of the Dollar on Paul Ryan, as he has already been shown to take an incredibly short position on T-Bills and is actively betting millions on the dollar losing value. He and Rmoney are both doing this, and stand to make tens of millions if the dollar collapses as a world currency.
And how will the Republicans blame Obama for the refinery fire in California?
Duh, if America had less refinery regulations, then they wouldn’t catch on fire as often.
Check it out!
Drunken, bare-assed right wing ding Republicans in the Holy Land:
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....79865.html
@26 Obviously they were trying to find out if they, too, could walk on water.
@11 and @12 – maybe it’s because Puffy’s knuckles are dragging on the floor.
RR # 8: The blue-collar working class usually limps into retirement with a variety ills caused by using their bodies as tools for their employer’s convenience. Young workers think nothing about moving 70+ lb boxes all day, crawling under cars and big trucks to make repairs, crawling through atics or crawl spaces to string wire or run plumbing. But by the time they hit 50+, their bodies just can’t do it anymore, and the lifetime of skills they’ve acquired become of little value to employers. They have bad backs, arthritic hands and knees, hearing loss, and in some cases lung damage from exposures.
As long as they stay with the same company, they have a shot at moving to a supervisory or desk job. But when their employer goes under – like many did in 2008-2009, they find themselves competing for fewer jobs against workers who are less experienced but considerably younger than them. Although age discrimination might be illegal, employers can always find a reason NOT to hire someone. Even if they are hired, the supervisory and office jobs are already held by those who have been in the company for decades.
So once it becomes clear that this isn’t an ordinary layoff, and the rescession will take months/years to run it’s course, an older worker will continue to collect unemployment and look for work. But in the meantime, they have to make long-range plans. The overriding goal in their life at that point is to survive – physically and financially – to age 65 (or 66 or 67, depending upon their birth year). At that point they can collect Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare.
The problem is how to survive between when their unemployment benefits run out and the date they can retire. Those who are least physically damaged will look for intermittant contract work or retail jobs to get them by for the five or ten years until they can retire. The years they were supposed to enjoy, however, will become a struggle simply to make ends meet from week-to-week.
But those who are more damaged will need to file for disability. This is a means-tested program, meaning some may have to give up their homes and cars to pay bills before they can qualify. It also takes about a year to go through the process, so they need to plan this path early.
Oh, and according to Romney, Ryan, and the GOP in general, these guys are “losers”.
@29
Extremely true.
In the exploitative capitalist model (redundant?) of ever-cheaper labor, these are the ‘disposable’ workers.
They cost more, because they’ve been around longer, and so are easy targets for disposal. Once disrupted from their stable position, it’s extremely difficult, as you say, to find another.
We as a society have a responsibility to our brethren, to use a somewhat ecclesiastical phrasing, who find themselves in such straits.
They also present an opportunity that our present dominant economic model discounts or completely misapprehends – their experience and knowledge is something that can take decades to reacquire and could potentially be very valuable.
In the meantime, we need a much more robust and comprehensive, transparent and easily accessible social safety net for people that allows them to preserve their homes and lifestyles, their dignity, their well-being – something we’ve been shredding for decades that never was fully adequate in the first place.
And people think unions are outdated and a haven for ‘thugs’.
In case there is too much stimulus, just remember that Paul Ryan believes all abortions should be illegal, including those resulting from rape or incest. Which isn’t so bad, since Todd Akin (R-Mo.) believes that “legitimate rape” victims rarely get pregnant.
@31 Hey, Richard…long time no see!
@1 Jesus of Nazareth, failure. (Certainly so according to Paul Ryan’s love goddess Ayn Rand…)
In fact, in the Rand/Ryan Bible, there would be Gospels not of Jesus but of King Herod or Pontius Pilate.
@29 It gets even worse…Consider the younger blue-collar worker who’s smart enough to see what’s coming, and enterprising enough to bust his butt on a schedule that has him working full time while pursuing a college degree. Then he loses his job and finds that because his “occupation” now reverts to “student” he can’t get unemployment unless he drops out of school.
“The table is tilted; the game is rigged…”
–George Carlin
@24 In other words, if you’re going to ruin the country and stir up a figurative lynch mob against the Muslim Terrorist from Nairobi, you might as well make yourself a few million bucks along the way.
“It must follow that the young economics major was exposed to many economic theories and philosophies, including those of Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, and (*snicker*) Ayn Rand.”
Yeah, that lamebrain Krugman can use a snicker or two. He’s a fucking idiot, just like everyone who thinks the Keynesian government solution is best. Keynes’ shit is why the Depression lasted so damn long. FDR hadn’t fucking clue, and he hired nimrods like JK Galbraith to strut around and profess socialism as the solution when the problem was an idiot government run by Keynesian twits.
The only thing that’s going to get us out of this mess is the private sector. Government has run out of bullets for their Keynes Gun: it just don’t work anymore!