Staten Island Congressman's office invaded by angry cheeseheads

No member of Congress who supports Paul Ryan's Roadmap to Ruin is safe from getting the cheesehead treatment, it appears.

What's happening in Ryan's district in Wisconsin was the inspiration for an action at Rep. Michael Grimm's Staten Island office, the Jobs Party reports:

The energy and enthusiasm was strong, as New Yorkers demanded that their congressman create jobs now as opposed to supporting the slashing of the social safety net inherent to the Paul Ryan budget.

The Wisconsin inspiration was real and palpable, and the connection to Paul Ryan intrinsic. The Wisconsin fight back is similarly being taken local in almost all of the town hall outbursts nationwide, as it is the nihilistic cuts of the Ryan budget that has inspired such activation. We just addressed it directly and made the Wisconsin-spirit of the event more overt.

Moreover, as Wisconsin has taken the town hall model up a notch in light of Ryan refusing to hold a free one, we followed suit by bringing the town hall to Grimm---including unemployed constituents of his walking inside to apply for jobs! Grimm followed Ryan's lead in not holding any town halls where he could be held accountable to his constituents, so we wanted to make sure he also heard from those he purportedly represents who are suffering direly from the jobs crisis.

Like Ryan in Wisconsin, Grimm in New York now has to dodge angry cheeseheads in his back yard.

Another House candidate now disavowing Ryan's poisonous plan

Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher plan that would cost seniors much more for health care seemed like a good idea at the time, Republican Congressional candidate Mark Amoedi says.

But not any more says Amoedi, running in a special election for a Nevada House seat.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:

In May, he did praise a plan by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that would cut Medicare and Social Security benefits, but Amodei insists he made those comments when the Ryan plan was the only budget-cutting plan under consideration. Now he says he would vote against the Ryan plan and opposes any Medicare or Social Security cuts for current recipients, or anyone within 10 years of retirement.

It's a Republican district, and Amoedi is favored to win, but there's this:

HOT TOPIC: MEDICARE
The biggest worry for 2nd Congressional District voters is that their Social Security and Medicare will be reduced just as they enter what should be their golden years. Several national and state polls since May have found more than 70 percent of respondents say they rely or will rely on Medicare and Social Security and they oppose any cuts now or in the future.

Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, said Democrats have seized upon the public fear that Republicans will cut Medicare. This strategy helped Democrats win two congressional seats earlier this year...

If elected, Marshall said she will work to fence off Medicare and Social Security so their funds are not raided by Congress to pay other bills. Social Security has a $2.2 trillion surplus and will "be fine" as long as Congress doesn't get its "grubby hands" on it, she said.

Amodei has pledged not to reduce any benefits for people receiving Social Security or Medicare now, or for those within 10 years of retirement.

But he believes these programs eventually will go into default unless their benefit plans are amended for people at least 15 years away from retirement. Congress should consider changes such as increasing the age for eligibility and a means test for future retirees, he said.

"I will do nothing to people on Social Security and Medicare now," said Amodei who has resorted to using his 79-year-old mother, Joy, in ads to tell people he won't cut these programs. "I don't know how many times I can say that."

It doesn't sound like he'll be asking Paul Ryan to come in and campaign with him.

Breitbarts' Big Government Pokes Ryan Protesters

After reading, Paul Ryan’s Office Calls Cops On Jobless Protesters and Paul Ryan Protest Enters Day 4 and Jobs Protest Against Paul Ryan Maintained All Week and Police Block Protesters At Paul Ryan’s Office and Protesters At Ryan’s Kenosha Office Kept Out Of Building and Police Break Up Ryan Office Sit-In, But Return and Protesters Converge On Rep. Paul Ryan’s Office In Janesville and Paul Ryan’s Office Locks The Door On Unemployed Constituents and Jobs Protest Against Paul Ryan Expands to All Four District Offices and on and on, the political huckster Breitbart’s “Big Government,” apparently upset that the protesters may have interfered with the ability of Ryan’s staff to work on Wall Street's behalf during his absence, came to his rescue by poking fun at the unemployed constituents and claiming the protest action is fizzling.

Let's show them how to "fizzle" on Thursday, September 1st when nurses will be holding a Soup Kitchen and Speak-Out Event at Paul Ryan's Janesville office.

Janesville Soup Kitchen and Speak-Out!

When: Thursday, September 1 · 5:00pm - 7:00pm

Where:
US Congressman Paul Ryan's Janesville Office
20 S. Main Street
Janesville, WI

Please Join Nurses for a Soup Kitchen and Speak-Out!

Buses Leaving from Madison:
3:30pm: Memorial Union; 4pm: GEF Bldg (King + Webster St)

We'll bring a much needed dose of reality to US Congressman Paul Ryan, while feeding the people that Wall Street and its political lackeys have devastated and turned their backs on.

Tell Congressman Ryan “Where It Hurts” in Janesville!

While Wall Street banks got bailed out of the financial crisis that THEY caused, Main Street towns like Janesville are suffering!

Deep cuts in social services, further corporate tax-breaks and schemes to privatize Medicare and Social Security will only result in the further devastation of Main Street.

Urge US Congressman Paul Ryan to support a Tax on Wall St. to bring quality jobs, housing, healthcare and education back to Main Street!

Buses Leaving from Madison:
3:30pm: Memorial Union
4pm: GEF Bldg (King + Webster St)
(Returning approx. 8pm)

Please call Jan at 510-757-5925 to save a seat on the bus, or for endorsements or questions.

Endorsed by: National Nurses United, People's Rights Campaign, AFSCME Local 1077

The Best Congressman Money Can Buy!

Is without a doubt Paul Ryan (R - Highest bidder). We found out recently, that Ryan\'s contributions directly tracked with legislation(ie taxbreaks) he introduced. Here is a man who went around the district holding town hall meetings telling everyone that we need to end the loopholes in the tax system.

"So first of all we're not talking about cutting taxes, we're just not agreeing with the President's tax increases... we're saying leave the tax rates where they are right now and get rid of all those loopholes and deductions..."

Yet we find out he has been the king of loopholes:

But a look at Ryan's record since he was elected to Congress in 1998 shows that he has tried to create an array of special loopholes for his top contributors, whose interests range from air fresheners to fraternity housing to beer.

Take S.C. Johnson & Son, one of Ryan's biggest donors. The multibillion-dollar company, which is based in Ryan's district and manufactures popular cleaning products like Pledge and Windex, donated $41,092 to the congressman between 1998 and 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Ryan introduced two bills in May 2005 that would have granted the company special exemptions from tariffs. Specifically, his bills sought to suspend duties for imported components of "unique air freshener products … assembled by S.C. Johnson in the United States," Ryan said during floor remarks at the time. Neither bill advanced.

A year later, Ryan put forward another bill to reduce the duty on S.C. Johnson cleaning appliances "capable of dispensing cleaning solution into a tub or shower enclosure using a button-activated, battery-powered piston pump controlled by a microchip." That bill didn't move.

The Wisconsin Republican has also pushed legislation that would have created tax loopholes for fraternity and sorority housing. Ryan himself was a member of Delta Tau Delta and, in 2004, received the fraternity's alumni achievement award. A year later, Fraternity & Sorority PAC began giving donations to Ryan that, by 2010, totaled $24,500, according to OpenSecrets.org.

During those same years, Ryan sponsored or cosponsored three bills that would have allowed college fraternities and sororities to accept tax-deductible charitable contributions for the construction of more housing. None of the bills became law.

Ryan has also backed numerous tax loopholes for the beer industry. The National Wholesalers Association, his second biggest contributor, gave him more than $72,000 between 1998 and 2010, according to OpenSecrets.org.

During those years, Ryan cosponsored five bills to cut taxes for beer brewers, reduce beer taxes to pre-1991 levels and repeal occupational taxes relating to distilled spirits, wine and beer. None became law.

The list goes on: In 1999, the congressman tried to give a tax break to a group the Los Angeles Times referred to as "the golf-course underprivileged." That year, he cosponsored the Caddie Relief Act, which would have allowed golf caddies to forgo paying taxes on their earnings.

Ryan has also opposed efforts to close offshore tax loopholes. He voted against an amendment in 2006 that would have barred funding for contracts with U.S. companies incorporated offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes. In 2004, he opposed an amendment that would have prohibited the Export-Import Bank from approving direct loans to U.S. companies incorporated offshore to avoid U.S. taxes.

He looked his constituents in the eye and lied to them. He had no interest in ever "getting rid of all loopholes". How many lies will the 1st congressional district keep ignoring just because ryan has good hair? No wonder the Boy King wants to arrest anyone who tries to ask him a question, they need to pay for his attention. Now his outright blatant prostitution of his office has received national attention. Just as the Founders envisioned - the rich pay for legislation that directly benefits them. O wait, it goes directly against everything the Founders believed in. Wait til the "tea party" hears about this!




Paul ryan in a meat dress is worth watching this alone.


Cross posted @ Bloggingblue

Ryan leads in tax hypocrisy; Says payroll tax break is 'sugar high'

Tax cuts for working people accomplish nothing, Paul Ryan says.  It's the fat cats who need a break.

From the Democratic Party of Wisconsin:

Paul Ryan, author of the plan to end Medicare, is leading Wisconsin Congressional Republicans in tax hypocrisy, calling the payroll break for workers a  sugar high" while defending tax cuts for billionaires and hedge fund managers.

Ryan is part of a Congressional Republican leadership that wailed to the heavens when the Bush-Era tax cuts for the richest one percent of Americans were set to expire. But now, with President Obama considering extending the payroll tax holiday as a way of stimulating a sluggish economy put at risk by the "Republican Downgrade" of long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, Ryan and Wisconsin Republicans are hypocritically balking.

"When a fat cat pays a penny in taxes it is cause for Paul Ryan to scream bloody murder about tax increases, but when American workers are allowed to keep more of their hard-earned dollars, Ryan and Wisconsin's Republican delegation sing an altogether different tune," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday. "Apparently, sipping $350 bottles of wine is the only type of work that Ryan and the Republicans believe is worth rewarding."

Where is Paul Ryan?

Wisconsin Jobs Now - The “Where Is Paul Ryan” Sit-In Activists Locked Out Of Kenosha.

Crooks and Liars - Where is Paul Ryan?

Ryan's Office Threatens Kenosha Protesters With Arrest and Investigation

In this video taken near Rep. Paul Ryan's constituent office in Kenosha, police officers are shown stating that the owner of the building signed a formal complaint against the district constituents. (The owner of the building is listed as South Harbor Professional Center.) The officer told district constituents they were not allowed inside the building at all on orders from the building owner. The officer declared it is the building owner's prerogative who is allowed to enter the building, apparently regardless of whether the congressman's office is an official public entity or not. By extension then, if an owner of the leased (constituent office) building happens not to agree with the viewpoints of the constituents, the building owner can effectively bar those constituents from the building and limit their speech to the sidewalk.

After further questioning, the police admitted Ryan's staff also signed the complaint.



Paul Ryan's Kenosha Constituent Services Center
5455 Sheridan Road
Suite 125
Kenosha, WI 53140
Phone: (262) 654-1901
Fax: (262) 654-2156

---

In an unrelated incident, Ohio Republican Congressman Steve Chabot had police seize a citizen’s camera after he tried to record one of Chabot’s answers at a tax payer financed town hall meeting. At the end of the meeting, the police confiscated two video cameras.

Here is the Chabot story from Progress Ohio.

Youtube: Chabot Sensors Townhall - Police Seize Cameras

Politicus USA Excerpt:
It is outrageous that in Rep. Chabot’s mind a citizen does not have the right to film a public event on public property that he and other taxpayers are funding. Rep. Chabot and the other House Republicans who are finding creative ways to mute or exclude their constituents are afraid to engage in democracy. These events aren’t town halls. They are monologues, and Rep. Chabot is abusing his position to keep them that way.

Both of these incidents (Ryan's and Chabots) are stunning examples as to the levels of government-sponsored intimidation and harrassment Republicans will rise to in an obvious effort to censor the citizenry and control opposing speech.

'Ryan is so important the presidency would be a step down'

I am not making this up.

Christian Schneider, a jolly good fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a right-wing propaganda machine posing as a think tank, actually says in a National Review Online blog that Ryan would have won the presidency if he had run, but that would have been a step down from his position as House Budget Committee chairman.

Schneider's outrageous premise is hardly worth comment, but it did attract some online commenters. This was my favorite:

"The office is too small for him?" Really? Right. Who wants to lead the country, be Commander in Chief, appoint Supreme Court Justices, and be co-equal to the Legislative Branch complete with veto power when one could chair the House Budget Committee? I suppose it is better to play football for Janesville High than for the Packers too.

Would you have written a similar post had he decided to run urging him stay in the House? I didn't think so

.

Janesville Rally - Where Are The Jobs?

JOIN US FOR A JANESVILLE RALLY

“Where’s Paul Ryan and Where Are The Jobs?”

Wednesday, August 24th AND Thursday, August 25th

Congressman Ryan’s Office
20 South Main St, Janesville

1:00 – 5:00 PM

As we ask Congressman Ryan,

“Where are you? And where are the jobs?”

Since last week, unemployed constituents of Congressman Paul Ryan have been waiting in his Kenosha office to ask him a simple question: Where are the jobs you promised?

Congressman Ryan, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found.

Facebook

Rock County Progressives Facebook

When Loop holes get government out of the way they’re not loop holes anymore, according to Paul Ryan.

Loop holes are a lot different than pro-growth tax avoidance schemes. Paul Ryan said so.

Paul Ryan, the un-presidential candidate, has rarely if ever been asked to define a “loop hole.” I’m getting the feeling they’re all on a short list and have nothing to do with ending off shore jobs and profits.

The Huffington Post listed some of Ryan’s attempts to achieve tax fairness. And they’re not loop holes I tell ya: 

Take S.C. Johnson & Son, one of Ryan's biggest donors … based in Ryan's district Ryan introduced two bills in May 2005 that would have granted the company special exemptions from tariffs … (one would) reduce the duty on … cleaning appliances "capable of dispensing cleaning solution into a tub or shower enclosure using a button-activated, battery-powered piston pump controlled by a microchip." Those bills didn't move.

I loved that one. Here’s more.

Tax loopholes for fraternity and sorority housing.

Ryan has also backed five bills to cut taxes for beer brewers, reduce beer taxes to pre-1991 levels and repeal occupational taxes relating to distilled spirits, wine and beer. None became law.

Give a tax break to a group the LA Times referred to as "the golf-course underprivileged" … the Caddie Relief Act, which would have allowed golf caddies to forgo paying taxes on their earnings. Ryan has also opposed efforts to close offshore tax loopholes … voted against an amendment in 2006 that would have barred funding for contracts with U.S. companies incorporated offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes. In 2004, he opposed an amendment that would have prohibited the Export-Import Bank from approving direct loans to U.S. companies incorporated offshore to avoid U.S. taxes.

So why has Ryan worked so hard to create loop holes he supposedly wants to repeal, unless…

Ryan spokesman Kevin Seifert said the lawmaker's record is consistent … "He has proposed specific solutions that eliminate or scale back all special interest tax breaks while advancing pro-growth reforms to help get America back to work.”

Surprise, they weren’t loop holes after all, but “pro-growth” reforms.

Paul Ryan Tries To Create Tax Loopholes For His Biggest Donors

Jennifer Bendery on Huffington Post:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has for months argued for closing tax loopholes as a way to pay for his proposed tax cuts. But it turns out he has a penchant for creating those same loopholes when it comes to helping out his biggest donors.

Since unveiling the House GOP budget in the spring, Ryan has been touting provisions aimed at ending tax loopholes and deductions in exchange for lowering tax rates in general...

His history is just the opposite, seeking to expand loopholes for his donors. For example:

Take S.C. Johnson & Son, one of Ryan's biggest donors. The multibillion-dollar company, which is based in Ryan's district and manufactures popular cleaning products like Pledge and Windex, donated $41,092 to the congressman between 1998 and 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Ryan introduced two bills in May 2005 that would have granted the company special exemptions from tariffs. Specifically, his bills sought to suspend duties for imported components of "unique air freshener products … assembled by S.C. Johnson in the United States," Ryan said during floor remarks at the time. Neither bill advanced.

No surprise they didn't go anywhere. Ryan has passed two bills since 1999, and one was to name a post office for Les Aspin, his Democratic predecessor.

More examples here.

Paul Ryan: Vote for me, I'll kick you when you're down

K. C. Dermody on Yahoo:

When Rep. Paul Ryan, R.-Wis., ran for re-election in 2010, his motto should have been, "Vote for me, and I'll kick you when you're down." Ryan likes to talk about how many town hall meetings he had in 2009, a total of 17, but in 2011, when so many people continue to struggle, his last meeting was held in April.

At that meeting Ryan was booed for his plan that would extend tax breaks to the wealthy but phase out Medicare for our senior citizens. Since then, he has not given the people in his district a chance for an open discussion, and next time, Ryan will charge $15 for the right to ask him a question...

This isn't the worst part. On Thursday, a group of unemployed who couldn't afford to pay the $15 admission to the luncheon in order to talk to Ryan, staged a peaceful sit in at his office. They thought it would be a good way to ensure a conversation with the congressman.

Wrong.

More here.

Paul Ryan phones it in

Two things keep getting harder to find in Kenosha: a good job and Paul Ryan.

So says Wisconsin Jobs Now, which has chronicled the recent sit-in by unemployed workers who left Ryan's Kenosha office after his staff called the cops.

Ryan, on a long family vacation in Colorado, supposedly musing about running for president, has decided during this Congressional recess to ignore his constituents.

Ryan's only public event is a Rotary Club speech for which lunch tickets are $15, and it's not even in his district, but in West Allis.

Says Wisconsin Jobs Now:

While unemployment in his district remains high, Paul Ryan is dodging his constituents and their repeated attempts to schedule meetings with him to address the jobs crisis. When asked to meet, Rep. Ryan replies with a form letter stating that his schedule is full and inviting participation in a telephone “conference call meeting” instead.

Here's the letter.

How Can Paul Ryan take a Colorado Vacation when so many people are out of work?!

Oh yea, that’s what Republicans are saying about Obama. I guess the actual lawmakers who right the bills, who whined that the Democrats weren't doing enough to create jobs, are good with a little summer break.

Rep. Paul Ryan has decided during this hot "climate change" summer, he doesn't have to hold any more of those pesky, loud and negatively covered free town halls. And if he’s does schedule one, you’re charged $15 bucks for a catered meal. You must buy the food to attend.

Apparently some of his constituents weren't looking for the "leader" Ryan claimed was needed, to guide them around like sheep to slaughter:

Huffington Post: Staffers for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called police on Thursday evening to disperse unemployed protesters staging a sit-in at his Kenosha, Wis., office, according to the protesters and police … they're unhappy with … his new policy of not holding free public meetings with constituents during the congressional recess. During the summer of 2009, Ryan hosted some 17 town halls.

Even though the Racine area has a 10 percent unemployment rate, Ryan oddly continues to win reelection. You would think in these uncertain times, Ryan would be hard at work leading:

Shannon Molina said, "I went there to talk to Paul Ryan. They said he was on vacation with his family in Colorado."

Union thugs and chaos everywhere?

Lt. Eric Larsen of the Kenosha Police Department told HuffPost that Ryan's office called the department around 4 p.m. on Thursday, and that the officers who responded found seven protesters inside the building where the office is located and about 50 protesters outside. "They left peaceably," Larsen said.

So, Pauly isn't really thinking about running for president?

Well, then, this is one pretty outrageous trial balloon. From the uber-conservative Weekly Standard:

Ryan Consults Christie on Possible Bid

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been quietly looking at a president bid "for nearly three months, since Indiana governor Mitch Daniels called him to say he wasn't running," the Weekly Standard reports.

"But that consideration took a serious turn over the past two weeks, following a phone call with New Jersey governor Chris Christie in early August. Ryan and Christie spoke for nearly an hour about the presidential race, according to four sources briefed on the conversation. The two men shared a central concern: The Republican field is not addressing the debt crisis with anything beyond platitudes."

Johnson joins Ryan for President fan club; Does Tea Party know that?

Jennifer Rubin on Washington Post's Right Turn blog"

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a freshman and Tea Party favorite, on the Charlie Sykes radio show in Wisconsin today gave thumbs up to a presidential run for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) Johnson said, “He is one of the few individuals on the national scene who is actually putting forward real proposals...I’d love to see Paul run.” Johnson made the point that his race was also improbable. Johnson had never run for office, let alone at the national level. But as Johnson put it, “We are in a whole new age in terms of communications.” He acknowledged that “politics is awash in money,” but he questioned the “how effective money is” as compared to other factors. In short, he posited that “a late entrance has a great chance of success.”

Earlier this week, Johnson was preaching gloom and doom to the Oshkosh Rotary Club, warning that the US is at a tipping point financially.

It makes you wonder if he's aware of some of the Paul Ryan votes that seem to be anathema to Johnson's fellow Tea Partiers. The Republican Liberty caucus of Wisconsin is among those sharply criticizing his record.

Ryan voted for the $700-billion TARP bailout bill, No Child Left Behind, extended unemployment benefits, the auto industry bailout, the tax on CEO bonuses, the trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more. Some of those votes might make him more attractive to moderates, but that's not who's driving this GOP nomination train wreck.

Johnson's likely to get himself kicked out of the Tea Party caucus if he keeps talking up his home state guy.

Gov. Scott Walker chimed in, too.  Walker told Fox News:

"[Ryan's] one of the most courageous people I know. We need leaders of courage. People who worry more about the next generation than the next election. That's what you would get out of Paul Ryan. I hope he's serious about reconsidering it. There's a lot of people across America who would love to see him on the ticket."

And he probably wouldn't mind seeing him out of office if he loses. Wisconsin may not be big enough for two ambitious, 40-something conservatives.

Was Paul Ryan’s Cut to Medicare relevant in the Recall Elections? Conservatives say No…and Yes. Huh?

Ah, the adoring public. Paul Ryan’s tough love against his fans future health care needs is just the discipline they needed, to make their fixed income lives a little more challenging.  

In the piece below, columnist Christian Schneider started out by saying the Democrats were wrong bringing Ryan’s plan into the Republican recall races, because Medicare had nothing to do with state politics. But as you can see by the title, and here final conclusion, Ryan’s Medicare cuts had everything to do with the elections. Doh! It’s not like state lawmakers never run for congress, or that support for an unpopular program like Ryan’s doesn’t call into question their family values.

The contradictions in this “love letter” to Ryan are too good to pass up:

National Review: How Paul Ryan Unexpectedly Won the Wisconsin Recalls By Christian Schneider: Democrats have been damaging their retinas squinting to find the silver lining in the past two weeks’ recall elections. Take congressional fiscal dreamboat Paul Ryan, whose plan to reform America’s entitlement programs became a fixture in the Wisconsin recall effort … despite the fact that these races were state and not federal contests. They tried to hang Ryan’s plan around the neck of state senators Sheila Harsdorf and Alberta Darling.

Wisconsin Democratic party chair Mike Tate “We’ve got them on camera with Paul Ryan. We’ve got them on the record saying they support the Ryan agenda. And I think it’s something that voters are going to weigh in on.”

Teachers’-union activist Shelley Moore, Harsdorf’s opponent, said the incumbent Republican wanted to “eliminate Medicare” by “standing with Ryan” — a claim for which she received a “pants on fire” rating from Politifact. 

Politifact again, had it all wrong. Medicare won’t be the same and will cost seniors more. But on the bigger point, if someone is standing with Ryan, how could they not be for his plan to end Medicare as we know it? Pants on fire Politifact.

But it is a sign that voters in swing areas looked at Ryan’s plan and shrugged.  I, for one, am trying to determine which of my children to love less in order to make more room in my heart to love Paul Ryan more. But as he (apparently) mulls a run for the presidency, he should take solace in the Wisconsin recall results — they demonstrate that the public seems to get what he’s trying to accomplish.

With contradictory thinking like this, is it any wonder why conservative voters desperately want to generalize the issues into easy, non-contradictory, talking points. Who can follow these people? Oh, and what child do you love less now...?

New campaign launched: End Medicare, Draft Paul Ryan

 

Wisconsin Democrats on Wednesday launched a (tongue-in-cheek) plan to draft Paul Ryan for the Republican presidential nomination, in light of a recent swirl of breathless stories about the architect of the plan to end Medicare.

Beginning as an Internet petition, and continuing later in the week in various social media platforms, the campaign asks voters to "End Medicare: Draft Paul Ryan."

In the face of a lackluster Republican field, Republican navel-gazers have been promoting a Ryan presidential run-a cloud of speculation doubtless fueled by Ryan's own public relations army.

"Paul Ryan has sought the close company of hedge fund managers over $350 bottles of wine to discuss his plans to end Medicare, but has since sought to hide from the people of Wisconsin to discuss his radical budget," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. "While we would never wish him to become president, we do wish he would become the Republican nominee so that there are more opportunities to explain why seniors should sacrifice their ages-old guarantee of Medicare coverage to finance tax cuts for billionaires. That's why if you like what Paul Ryan is selling, we urge voters to, "End Medicare: Draft Paul Ryan.""

Why You Should Donate $15 To Rob Zerban's Campaign Today

Last night voters in Wisconsin's Senate District 22 overwhelmingly rejected the Republican Party's attempt to replace Senator Bob Wirch with Jonathan Steitz, another hapless Scott Walker/Paul Ryan clone. Wirch won reelection 58-42%... in a senatorial district that is entirely within Paul Ryan's congressional district. Last year Ryan took Kenosha County with 62% of the vote. Ryan's constituents may well be getting sick and tired of his shenanigans-- from pushing through the TARP bailout of Wall Street to fueling the Koch Brothers' agenda for destroying Medicare. In May, Ryan, trying to appeal to deranged teabaggers, even played down the potentially catastrophic consequences of letting the U.S. default.

"You want to make sure that the bondholder has confidence that the government's going to be able to pay them... That's what I'm hearing from most people, which is if a bondholder misses a payment for a day or two or three or four what is more important that you're putting the government in a materially better position to be able to pay their bonds later on."

And his latest stunt-- and hence this request to donate $15 to Rob Zerban's campaign to replace Ryan-- is to refuse to speak to constituents who don't pay for the privilege! No more townhalls-- just chats with voters who pay him! During the current summer vacation, he's charging $15 to take part in his events.

By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still-- in some cases-- allowing in reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story.

...“After Republicans voted to gut Medicare, and other vital programs, while protecting tax breaks for millionaires and corporations, it’s not surprising that they would not want to face their constituents in an open forum,” said MoveOn.org Executive Director Justin Ruben. “There seems to be no limit to how much our government is for sale.”

...Ryan, who had police remove a man who yelled at him about proposed Medicare cuts during an April town hall meeting in Racine, will host telephone town hall meetings but no free events in person during the recess, spokesman Kevin Seifert said.

...Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski said Ryan is scared to defend his record before his fellow citizens.

“Paul Ryan has had a hard time going before open crowds, and for good reason,” Zielinski said. “I’m sure Ryan doesn’t want to go before the public to explain while his extreme ideology caused Standard & Poor’s to downgrade U.S. long-term treasury bonds. Beside, Ryan likes smaller settings-the kind where you can cozy up to a hedge fund manager and get a good $350 bottle of wine.”

The Weekly Standard is touting a Paul Ryan presidential (or vice-presidentail) run but this could well be the year Ryan loses his Wisconsin House seat and takes a more direct job working for Wall Street or an insurance giant. Zerban doesn't charge anything to talk with voters in southeast Wisconsin. He loves hearing what they have to say and sharing his ideas on how to make American work for all of us, not just for Paul Ryan's wealthy backers on Wall Street.

"Limiting himself to occasions where constituents have to pay to ask Paul Ryan a question shows just how out-of-touch he has become. While the people of the 1st Congressional District are losing their houses and their jobs, Paul Ryan is charging people a fee so they can ask their elected representative just what he's done to help them in their hour of need.

"But Paul Ryan just won’t listen to his constituents who are angry and upset about the dangerous Treasury bond downgrade caused by his extreme ideology, which threatens the fragile recovery; or his plans to end Medicare and replace it with a voucher program; or his advocacy for the billionaires with whom he shares $350 bottles of wine.

Pay-per-view meetings aren’t real representation for Wisconsin, but it IS typical Washington insider behavior. That's why voters of the 1st Congressional District have had enough. That's why when I am elected to Congress, the people of southeast Wisconsin will always have free access to their elected representative.”

Please consider helping Rob Zerban to stop Paul Ryan... before he gets into a position where he can do even more damage than he's already doing.

Care package for Paul Ryan

As quoted by The Progressive magazine: On a swing through Kenosha last week to support Wisconsin State Sen. Bob Wirch in his Aug. 16 recall election, progressive Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said of the Paul Ryan Medicare reform plan:

“He can call it sortacare or maybecare or I-don’t-care but its not Medicare.”

No town halls, but for $15 maybe you can ask Ryan a question

Paul Ryan isn't holding any town hall meetings during the August Congressional recess -- who wants to face more crowds of angry constituents and defend his plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a sort of voucher system? That didn't go so well in April,  as you can see in the Associated Press photo above. Politico reports:

Ryan, who had police remove a man who yelled at him about proposed Medicare cuts during an April town hall meeting in Racine, will host telephone town hall meetings but no free events in person during the recess, spokesman Kevin Seifert said.

Busy, busy, busy.

Seifert said Ryan is also “holding business tours and office hours throughout the recess.” He said the decision not to hold public town hall events had nothing to do with criticism the House Budget chairman took from constituents in April.

Fifteen dollars is the price tag to attend a Ryan luncheon speech to the Whitnall Park Rotary Club in West Allis, which had been scheduled for July but has been moved back to Sept. 6. You can still register here until Aug. 28.

That will get you in the same room with Ryan, but there is no guarantee you'll get to ask him a question.

Politico has more.

Don't Let Them Run From Their Words

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), May 17, 2011: "You want to make sure that the bondholder has confidence that the government's going to be able to pay them.... That's what I'm hearing from most people, which is if a bondholder misses a payment for a day or two or three or four what is more important that you're putting the government in a materially better position to be able to pay their bonds later on."

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), June 24, 2011 on administration warnings of "catastrophic consequences" of not raising debt limit: "I don't believe them, it's not true."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), July 18, 2011: "I am a little bit cynical about the scare mongering and putting America's back up against this Aug. 2 deadline just to get an increase in the American credit card."

TPM is keeping the list current

Tea Party Induced Stock Market Crash A Paul Ryan Downgrade

Give "Capper" at Cognitive Dissidence the credit through all the other distractions for noticing the troubling relationship between the recent Tea Party/S&P driven stock market dive and Paul Ryan's scheme to shift SS payroll taxes to the highly volatile investment markets. That the markets have proven to be susceptible to congressional brinksmanship and political posturing makes it even less the infallible pillar of trust that is crucial to its existence.

Cognitive Dissidence Excerpt:

You will remember that Ryan, the Republicans' shining star, has, as a key part of his budget from hell, privatizing Social Security and allowing people to invest it in the stock market themselves [...]Even the bullheaded Ryan has to realize that only the extreme lunatic fringe would want to invest their retirement into the market right now. Read more here.

Or invest even a year or two ago. That's twice in the past three years and three times over the past ten years that stock market volatility has eaten away at modest gains. These are precisely the economic times Social Security was meant to protect vulnerable seniors from.

If I recall accurately here, Ryan's Social Security proposal guarantees recipients a return equivalent to a minimum standard SS benefit which means that during times like these, not only would participants lose hard-earned dollars to the profit-takers on Wall Street but government will also have to go into more debt and borrow to restore minimum guaranteed benefits. Under this scenario, Ryan's proposal transforms Social Security into a generous subsidy for private investment firms. But with losses like these, its participants would find themselves enrolled in little more than a welfare program.

Ryan satire that you almost can't make up

...because it sounds pretty much like the real guy.

The Onion satirical newspaper has a "major news story" up with the following headline:

"Congress Passes First Law in History That Doesn't Somehow Kill Thousands of Ducks"

The story itself goes on to "report" this:

> ... The law, designed to track suspicious interstate financial transactions, passed with an overwhelming majority in both houses and did not cause the usual hail of dead ducks to fall from the sky... .

> According to congressional sources, the outcome of the legislation likely would have been different if Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) had been successful is his attempt to add a provision to the bill calling for 14,000 ducks to be stabbed to death.

Yup, that's our Pauly: Mangling figurative baby ducks for political fun and profit.

DCCC Goes After Ryan Again

There's very little positive an honest man can say about the DCCC. They're part of the problem, not the solution to it. This year their recruitment of conservative and corrupt assholes like Marty Chavez in Albuquerque, Val Demings and Luis Garcia in Florida and Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona, lays bare their hypocritical railing against conservative Republicans for voting the same way their own conservative kennel votes. On rare occasions they stumble into doing the right thing. Yesterday, for example, they went on an online rampage against Medicare destroyer Paul Ryan (R-WI)-- after assiduously protecting his seat for almost a decade.

Afraid to be blamed, as he should be, for the S&P downgrade of American credit-- something that could cost American citizens billions by increasing the cost of mortgages, auto loans, student loans, as well as the cost of anything you are not paying for with cash and by further slowing the economic recovery and screwing up the jobs market-- Ryan is suddenly open to raising taxes, something that would have prevented this disaster just a few weeks ago.

Ryan said on Fox News Sunday that he would be open to a deal that contains $3 or $4 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue increases if it came through a major reform of the tax code and was large enough.

That was the deal Obama offered the GOP all summer and that the American people favored in every poll-- and that Ryan and the GOP flatly turned down. Maybe they were shaken up by the S&P blaming the downgrade on their intransigence. Tight from the S&P report:

The political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.

...It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options.

...The act contains no measures to raise taxes or otherwise enhance revenues, though the committee could recommend them.

...Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.

So... back to the DCCC's new aggressiveness towards Ryan. Supposedly they're going to help Rob Zerban beat him... although I'll believe that when I see it. (Meanwhile, Rob is still counting on you.) But at least they're sending out nice anti-Ryan messages on the Twitter machine, sniping at his lies on Fox:

Today on Fox News Sunday, Republican Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (WI-01) repeatedly and falsely said that he and House Republicans want to “reform” Medicare. 

In reality, Ryan and House Republicans have voted three times to end Medicare and raise health care costs for seniors.

FACT CHECK

Ryan Voted for the Cut, Cap and Balance Plan that is More Extreme than the Republican Budget . The non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote: “The measure […] stands out as one of the most ideologically extreme pieces of major budget legislation to come before Congress in years, if not decades. […] The legislation would inexorably subject Social Security and Medicare to deep reductions.” [H.R. 2560, Vote #606, 7/19/11; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/16/11]

Ryan Voted to Deem the Republican Budget as Having been Passed by Congress. Representative Paul Ryan voted to end Medicare by supporting a “deeming resolution” in H. Res. 287 which states “the provisions of House Concurrent Resolution 34 […] shall have force and effect […] in the House as though Congress has adopted such concurrent resolution”. [H. Res. 287, Vote #382, 6/1/11]

Ryan Voted for the 2012 Republican Budget Proposal that Would “End Medicare.” In April, Paul Ryan voted to end Medicare by supporting the Republican budget. The Wall Street Journal reported “The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [H Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11; Wall Street Journal, 4/4/11]

US credit downgrade vindicates his draconian budget plan, Ryan says

On a Sunday morning Fox gasbag show, Rep. Paul Ryan said Standard & Poor's downgrade of U.S. credit was a "vindication" both of Republican actions in the tarted-up debt ceiling "crisis" and his own draconian budget plan.

Gee, it's a "vindication" that the debt ceiling crisis and its outcome -- manufactured entirely by Republicans and teabaggers -- has now led to a lower US credit rating? Can Ryan and other Republicans only be vindicated in their brinkmanship tactics when things get worse as a result? Well, yes, if you believe the GOP's only real interest is damaging the economy so that Obama becomes a one-termer and the Senate falls to the Republicans.

[And meanwhile, tea party noisemakers are busy celebrating the S&P downgrade. When the public and the facts aren't on your side, throw in with chaos.]

Ryan also blithely opined that Republicans and Democrats haven't been able to compromise on budget plans because Democrats simply won't go along with his plan to end Medicare and other entitlement programs as we know them. In short: "Surrender, Dorothy!" It's the old George W. Bush brand of compromise: you guys totally compromise your positions and agree to mine, and we'll call it bipartisan.

The latest Ryan miscreancy was ably summarized at David's Blog (highlighting is my own):

"I am not very surprised with the downgrade," Ryan told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "We more or less saw it coming because we are [on] the wrong fiscal path. We'll find out what spike in rates we are going to get. Obviously not only does it hurt the federal government and its ability to close deficits, but it hurts people. Car loans, home loans, all these things are going to go up. And so, it is because Washington has not gotten its fiscal house in order."

And to me, this is just more vindication of our actions. We passed a budget, which according to someone with S&P yesterday, would have prevented the downgrading from happening in the first place."

"Isn't that like a doctor saying, 'I did the operation perfectly but the patient died?'" Wallace wondered. "In its announcement, S&P condemned the political dysfunction here in Washington, the grid lock here in Washington... isn't the failure to compromise part of the problem?"

"Both political parties are responsible for the mess we have right," Ryan admitted. "This is not a Democrat or Republican problem only. Both parties got us to where we are. I would argue, though, in the last couple of years, we've gone deeply in the wrong direction."

"Yes, we haven't been able to get the kind of compromise because our partners on the other side of the aisles had been unwilling to reform the [entitlement] programs that the cause of the problem."

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/ryan-claims-downgrade-vindication-gop

Ryan admits cuts to "entitlements" will lead to economic growth and tax cuts.

I understand now what Rep. Paul Ryan has been saying over and over. If the government spends less on seniors, there will be more left over for "economic growth and tax reform." It's a pure capitalistic, free market plan. Seniors are in the way with huge entitlements that pretty much keeps the government from reducing taxes. 

What else could explain his dogged pursuit to tear down the new deal? Watch the video below, he's downright obsessive. But why? After all, Ryan used his families Social Security payments to fund his education. It can't save the government money unless it shifts the costs to the individual, seniors on a fixed income. 

Below, Ryan makes it perfectly clear where his focus is. 

RYAN: It all depends on the spending side of the ledger. … If we’re convincingly restructuring these entitlement programs and getting that spending line down to meet that revenue line, then can you have higher revenue growth through more economic growth and tax reform? Yes, the answer is yes.

Ryan for President: The Crazy, Inexplicable Demand That Will Not Die

That assessment is from one of Ryan's fellow conservatives, Daniel Larison, writing for The American Conservative:

Apparently, Americans ... deserve to have a second Obama term, because this is what would be the result of such a contest. Calls for Paul Ryan to run for President have lately had two main features: they emphasize that the upcoming election is one of the most important in all of American history, and they then propose that the right way to seize this opportunity is to promote the candidacy of a member of the House of Representatives closely associated with deeply unpopular Medicare reform. Ryan would be almost certain to lose what his fans regard as a pivotal election that will define the future of the country...

If you believe as Ryan enthusiasts do that the outcome of the 2012 election is critically important for the fate of liberty and the soul of America, it is truly crazy to demand that the GOP rally behind Ryan, but this is what keeps happening.

Read it here.

Reporter Dares Question Paul Ryan About His Budget Plan

Al Jazeera recently launched a program called Fault Lines, a half hour long news program that analyzes the political and economic divide, the "Fault Lines" that run through the world.

This week they released an episode focusing on "The Top 1%" which explores the growing wealth gap in the United States that has expanded by leaps and bounds over the last 30 years. It asks "How did the gap grow so wide, and so quickly?

Dane 101 Excerpt:

(Reporter's Perfectly Reasonable Questions Were Rude)

Wisconsin's very own Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, makes an appearance in the episode when the discussion turns to his budget plan. When the Al Jazeera reporter asks Ryan if his plan is undemocratic "given the fact the majority of American people oppose cuts to so-called entitlement spending" and "why he won't talk about tax burden for the richest in the country given the fact that wealth is so concentrated?" The reporter said the only answer Ryan gave was her "questions were rude."

In the video excerpt below, watch for Ryan's pompously smirky response to the reporter's question:



Watch full (25 minutes) "Fault Lines" episode here.

'Jobs Not Cuts' Rally Set For Paul Ryan's Janesville Office on Aug. 10

From Rock NetRoots:

Make it a full day in J'ville! Rally at noon then potluck picnic 4-9 (6pm food, 7pm speakers) at Riverside Park, North Pavillion).

While Congress embarks on another August recess, many in Paul Ryan's district have been looking for work since the LAST August recess; or longer. We need good paying jobs, jobs where the weekly take home pay exceeds the price of a bottle of Paul Ryan's favorite wine. On August 10th we'll go to his Janesville office and ask, "Where are the Jobs?"

"Jobs Not Cuts" Rally

Congressman Ryan's District Office, 20 S. Main St. (Map)

Janesville, WI 53545

Wednesday, August 10th, Noon

Sign up here for event.

From Chuck Ogg, Rock County Progressives

Ryan attacks Obama, but GOP doesn’t have a ‘credible’ debt plan of its own

Stephen Stromberg, of the Washington Post, finds Paul Ryan has more than a small credibility gap when discussing Obama's budget position:

Paul Ryan, the GOP’s budget chief, tried to twist the knife in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, issuing a wide-ranging condemnation of President Obama in the midst of the Republicans’ debt-limit victory.

Here’s a key sentence: The president, he writes, “still hasn't put forward a credible plan to tackle the threat of ever-rising spending and debt, and his evasiveness is emblematic of the party he leads.”

Nearly every word of that applies to Ryan and his party, only arguably more so. The budget Ryan wrote and the GOP House passed would add $6 trillion to the debt over the next decade, despite its truly punitive cuts to domestic spending. Why? Because while Ryan would reform entitlement programs, one essential element in budget reform, he would also cut taxes steeply, exactly the opposite of what the budget math requires. The result is a plan that doesn’t balance the budget until 2030s, which Ryan euphemistically calls “[putting] the federal budget on the path to balance.”

Read it here.

The GOP Will Run On Ryan's Kill Medicare/Austerity Platform After All

Here's a reason for this!

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousands words and the one above, should get across the point we're making this morning. Wednesday night, Sioban Hughes, writing for the Dow Jones Newswires, hit the transom with these points from an interview Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor did in that day's Wall Street Journal, the parent company:

--Cantor: Government promises 'aren't going to be kept for many'

--Cantor: Younger Americans will have to adjust

--Cantor: Americans will see current cutbacks as paring back government waste

Republicans will continue a push to overhaul programs such as Medicare, saying in an interview that "promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many" and that younger Americans will have to adjust.

"What we have to be, I think, focused on is truth in budgeting here," Cantor told the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal. He said "the better way" for Americans is to "get the fiscal house in order" and "come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many."

His comments suggest that Republicans are committed to overhauling entitlement programs such as Medicare even after President Barack Obama signed into law a debt package under which Medicare recipients weren't hit with direct cuts. Congress left Medicare recipients untouched directly in order to win enough Democratic votes for the debt package to become law.

But Republicans could make a new push to cut back on Medicare as the debt-reduction deal is implemented. The law initially provides for $917 billion in spending cuts over a decade, but a bipartisan committee of lawmakers must come up with a proposal by Nov. 23 to find an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. The panel's members--half of whom will be Republican lawmakers-- could try again to change Medicare.

"When we came out with our budget, we said, look, let's at least put people on notice, but preserve those who are 55 and older," Cantor said, referring to a Republican-written budget plan that would turn Medicare, now a fee-for-service program, into a program that subsidizes private health insurance. "The rest of us have got ample time to try and plan our lives so that we can adjust to reality here when you look at the numbers. Again the math doesn't lie."

So... voters completely rejected Paul Ryan's plan to kill Medicare-- you'll recall the election of Democrat Kathy Hochul in New York's mostly deeply red district (a district where Obama only managed to win 46%, his worst showing in the state)-- but the Ryan model is still what the GOP wants to hang its hat on going forward.

Or do they? Boehner and Cantor do. Ryan does. But their troops in the field? Tuesday Wisconsin state Senator Alberta Darling, not just a firm ally of Scott Walker's and the author of some of his most notorious anti-family legislation but a loud advocate for the Ryan budget, will be facing the voters in her recall election. She was considered a shoo-in... before she adopted Ryan's kill Medicare talking points. Wednesday she seemed to back away. Questioned by journalists in Milwaukee, Darling, whose polling has been trending down, said she now doesn't know enough of the details of Ryan's plan to endorse it-- though she already did-- but that she supports his "fiscal goals."

This is going to be the great debate that rages between now and 2012. Since Obama is totally conflicted and tied in knots, congressional Democrats have to make their own case that they are NOT the party of right-wing Austerity. Democrats are doing it quite well in Wisconsin. Tuesday will tell us a lot about how the rest of this election cycle plays out.

Tea Party To Push Paul Ryan Medicare Plan In Town Halls

Well, this could (a) be good news for Democrats and (b) make for some lively town hall meetings.

Tea Party activists plan to show up in force at Congressional town hall meetings to push for passage of Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a sort of voucher system that will force  seniors to pay much more for health care -- if they can afford it at all.

"The August town halls are going to be, potentially, a referendum on Democrats who don't care and Republicans who've dared to offer real policy solutions, particularly on things like entitlements," said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the small-government advocacy group organizing the initiative...

At stake is the support of senior citizens, a powerful bloc of swing voters who broadly oppose the Ryan plan and could punish its supporters in Congress if Republicans fail to turn the debate in their favor, according to analysts...

Polls point to broad public support for preserving Medicare in the deficit debate, with majorities favoring higher taxes for the wealthy over program cuts.

Still, a June CBS poll showed that nearly 60 percent of Americans know little about the changes proposed by the Ryan plan, suggesting that many voters have yet to form an opinion...

Kibbe, whose group is led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and claims 800,000 volunteers nationwide, says Republicans lost in New York because they abandoned the Medicare debate to Democrats.

Republican lawmakers now need to come out swinging before the same thing happens elsewhere, he says.

"If they don't do that, we won't win this debate," Kibbe told Reuters. "You can't move a legislative initiative unless you've vetted it through the political season."

Ryan himself appears to agree and has been promoting his views on television and in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece.

"We need a public education campaign and that means people from all around the country, different groups, need to engage with their people," Ryan told CNBC a day after the House approved the debt limit deal.

"You've got to have wherewithal to get out to the public to educate them as to the pending bankruptcy of Medicare."

It could, of course, also be bad news for the Democrats if they don't get their act together and agree on a message about why Medicare isn't going broke and how terrible Ryan's plan would be for seniors.

The facts are on the Dems' side, but that doesn't necessarily mean they win the political debate.

More from Reuters here.

Debt deal does not eliminate Bush tax cuts, Ryan tells Sean Hannity

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) assured Sean Hannity of Fox News that the debt deal that passed the House will not increase taxes and WILL NOT eliminate the Bush tax cuts, which under current law will expire in 2013. That 2013 expiration remains unchanged. Rep. Ryan appears to be engaged in some semantic trickery -- but don't be surprised if the GOP finds a way by 2013 to keep the tax cuts in place, even if the new debt ceiling deal doesn't do it.

Paul Ryan, blogger?

What does Paul Ryan do for a hobby?

Looks like he has a blog called Daily Ramblings.

Maybe not. You be the judge.

If it is him, the police artist sketch doesn't do him justice.

Good grief! Kristol still promoting Ryan for President

William Kristol of the right-wing Weekly Standard cannot get over his man crush on Paul Ryan. 

In his latest column, which Kristol calls, "Six Circumstances in Search of a Candidate," Kristol makes the case that the GOP has a great chance to beat a weakened President Obama in 2012, but currently has no candidate who can do it.  But then he reaches this conclusion:

Paul Ryan can’t accomplish much over the next year in the House. [He's accomplished almost nothing in 12 years there, so Kristol has that right]   He should run as a candidate who’s shown leadership (the Ryan budget) [which is enormously unpopular with the voters], who has successfully taken on Obama (at the House Republican retreat, the health care summit, and in the White House about two months ago), and who has the best chance of uniting the establishment and Tea Party wings of the GOP

But it gets worse.

If not Ryan, how about Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, or someone else who is young, sane, and unafraid?

Read it here, if you must.

Meanwhile, Lew Rockwell says Paul Ryan is evil. How can he tell? Answer here.