Archive for the ‘Representative Paul Ryan (R)’ Category
VIDEO – PAUL RYAN’S SPEECH AT THE HOOVER INSTITUTE ON HEALTHCARE
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011THE EVOLUTION OF OUR BLOATED WELFARE STATE
Sunday, September 4th, 2011The End of the New Deal Order
It won’t win the future.
Matthew Continetti
EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE: The modern welfare state was born. In our era, Keller writes, political debate isn’t over how to constrain government. It’s over how to use government “to enforce and enhance the rights of individuals and groups.” And by the time FDR delivered his Second Bill of Rights address in January 1944, the number of rights had mushroomed. Life, liberty, property, and conscience were just for starters. Equally pressing were “the right of every family to a decent home” and “the right to a good education” and the right to economic “security.”
The reporter went to the City of Light in the summer of 1925. He found himself in the capital of a nation at the height of its military, economic, and cultural power. The continental empires that had been threats to France—Germany, the Hapsburgs, Russia—were smoldering wrecks. France’s economy seemed to have recovered from the destruction of the First World War. Modern culture flourished in the city. A visit to the Left Bank brought encounters with writers, artists, and philosophers; with the giants of the French avant-garde; with bankers, newspapermen, and politicians fluent in literary debate.
The reporter was struck by the equanimity of his surroundings. “The country was prosperous,” he wrote, “the people relaxed, the Continent at last at peace.” What the young William L. Shirer did not understand at the time, though, was that the apparent wealth and order rested on weak foundations. Part of the problem was demographic: The French population was shrinking. Birthrates had been falling before the war and continued to plunge after it ended. More than a million Frenchmen were permanently disabled from injuries in battle. Average family size had withered. Mass immigration alone “enabled the country to function.”
Inflation, meanwhile, was robbing the franc of its purchasing power. A franc in 1939 would be worth only one-seventieth of its value in 1913. The rising cost of living made it difficult for families and businesses to plan. Taxes were indirect, inefficient, and regressive. Government finances were a mess. Cronyism was rampant. (more…)
VIDEO – THE PAUL RYAN FACTOR BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Friday, July 22nd, 2011PAUL RYAN DISSECTS THE GANG OF SIX PLAN
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE www.nationalreview.com
As for the negatives, Ryan blasts the plan, which “appears to increase revenues by $2.8 trillion,” for relying far too heavily on tax increases. He also raises concerns over the composition of the proposed spending cuts in the plan, which appear to achieve most of their “savings” through cuts to the defense budget — for example, a $890 billion reduction to “security programs.” And last but not least, Ryan is not pleased with the plan’s failure to address the budget-busting consequences of Obamacare, which was a primary reason why he opposed the deficit commission’s recommendations
Ryan Dissects the Gang of Six Plan
Posted on July 20, 2011 9:41 AM
House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), who also sat on President Obama’s deficit commission (and voted against its final report), has released an initial analysis of the $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction proposal unveiled by the Gang of Six on Tuesday. The plan, which Ryan points out “is not a budget,” is woefully short on details (e.g., it instructs Congress to “encourage greater economic growth” and “spend health care dollars more efficiently”), but the House Budget chair does his best to tease out the plan’s shortcomings and unanswered questions, as well as its “potential for worthwhile budget and tax reforms.” On the positive side, Ryan praises the plan for acknowledging the need for tax reform and he approves of many of its recommendations, for example: lowering the top marginal tax rate to 29 percent, transitioning to a territorial tax system, and requiring any unexpected surplus in revenue be used to further reduce rates, rather than fuel new spending. However, Ryan argues that the latter proposal, while “laudable,” falls short because it appears to lack an enforcement mechanism, such as a firm cap on total spending and revenue. Ryan also points to proposed caps on discretionary spending and the plan’s requirement that committees come up with significant savings in the mandatory portion of the budget or face automatic spending reductions as promising elements. Other positive signs: repeals of the CLASS act included in the health-care law; calls for medical malpractice reform; and reforming the “emergency spending” process. As for the negatives, Ryan blasts the plan, which “appears to increase revenues by $2.8 trillion,” for relying far too heavily on tax increases. He also raises concerns over the composition of the proposed spending cuts in the plan, which appear to achieve most of their “savings” through cuts to the defense budget — for example, a $890 billion reduction to “security programs.” And last but not least, Ryan is not pleased with the plan’s failure to address the budget-busting consequences of Obamacare, which was a primary reason why he opposed the deficit commission’s recommendations. Additionally, Ryan raises the following questions:
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VIDEO – PAUL RYAN ON MEDICARE PAYMENT ADVISORY BOARD
Thursday, July 14th, 2011KARL ROVE – HOW THE GOP CAN BLOW IT IN 2012
Friday, July 1st, 2011- JUNE 30, 2011
Thomas Dewey tried to run out the clock on Harry Truman. It didn’t work.
- By KARL ROVE
The first such mistake would be forgetting that the target voters are those ready to swing away from Mr. Obama (independents, Hispanics, college educated and young voters) and those whose opposition to Mr. Obama has deepened since 2008 (seniors and working-class voters).
Republican presidential candidates at the Republican presidential debate earlier this month.
These voters gave the GOP a big win in the 2010 midterm. They are deeply concerned about the economy, jobs, spending, deficits and health care. Many still like Mr. Obama personally but disapprove of his handling of the issues. They are not GOP primary voters, but they are watching the contest. The Republican Party will find it more difficult to gain their support if its nominee adopts a tone that’s harshly negative and personally anti-Obama. (more…)
PEGGY NOONAN – ‘UNSUSTAINABLE’
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011- MAY 27, 2011, 7:51 P.M. ET
Word of the Decade: ‘Unsustainable’
Washington finally acknowledges the debt crisis. But can it act?
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By PEGGY NOONAN
- We’re at a funny place. The American establishment has finally come around, in unison, to admitting that America is in crisis, that our debt actually threatens our ability to endure, that if we don’t make progress on this, we are going to near our endpoint as a nation. I am struck very recently by the number of leaders in American business, politics and journalism who now get a certain faraway look at the end of an evening or a meal and say, “It’s worse than people think, you know.” The debt crisis in Europe is not easing but worsening, the U.S. bond markets could bail tomorrow, the culture of Washington will kill any serious attempts at reform . . .
The American establishment, on both sides of the political divide, is admitting as never before that we are in an existential challenge. And this is progress. It was not always so! It wasn’t so two years ago.
VIDEO – PAUL RYAN ON HEALTHCARE
Friday, May 27th, 2011THE GOP FIELD: ALL TALK, NO DO
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011- MAY 20, 2011
If the Republican candidates don’t take on tough issues as Paul Ryan, Chris Christie and others have, they might as well go hold forth with The Donald.
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By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
- Newt Gingrich embarked on a national apology tour this week, which was not exactly how he pictured his 2012 rollout. There’s a simple lesson here for those seeking the GOP nomination: Stop talking.
His rivals, and the press, ought to be thanking Mr. Gingrich for his “Meet the Press” performance, for finally injecting clarity into the GOP battle. Why oh why, everyone keeps asking, does the Republican race excite less enthusiasm than a curling competition? Why does watching the speeches and the interviews require No-Doz . . . or Tums . . . or an epidural? What is the problem, people?
Mr. Gingrich supplied that answer on NBC last weekend as he talked, and talked, and talked. Make no mistake, the former speaker put in the usual fabulously pithy oration—rapping President Obama, summoning Ronald Reagan, knocking House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform. Yet in all that talk, talk, talk, Mr. Gingrich never actually laid out a bold vision of what he’d do, do, do as president. That sums up the problem with the GOP field. (more…)