Showing posts with label Paul Ryan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Ryan. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2012

Newt Gingrich on President Obama's curious choices and what they mean -placing more importance on meeting the hosts of ABC's 'The View' than practicing traditional U.S. statecraft and actually meeting other countries' leaders -like Netanyahu- at the U.N. And even elements of the MSM are upset

Video at: http://video.foxnews.com/v/1861429922001/

Fox News Channel video: Gingrich's take: Obama at UN, snubs, 'bumps' and more.
Newt Gingrich appeared on Greta Van Sustern's "On the Record" TV show on Tuesday night, September 25th, and opined on all manner of things, most notably, Obama's curious speech before the United Nations General Assembly, his continued use of "the video" as an excuse for what happened to four Americans being murdered in Libya, inc. our Ambassador, his public snub of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and what Mitt Romney needs to do for the rest of the 2012 campaign. 

Long story short: Newt Gingrich and many other Americans believe that actions STILL speak louder than words, so using that as your guide, President Obama has decided that running for re-election as president and appearing on various TV chat shows where he will get softballs lobbed at him, is more important than actually acting doing the duties expected of a U.S. president. 
He is not going to worry what high-minded people think, he's going after the yentas!

Which is why he is the first sitting U.S. president in over twenty years to come to the U.N. for this annual event and NOT actually meet any representatives from other countries. 
He's left that task to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Paul Ryan: Why he matters and needs to be unleashed on Obama and the Dems' treasure trove of bad ideas -he connects with smart, reasonable voters who see that under Obama, we're not just going the wrong direction on too many important issues, our margin of error is getting smaller everyday; DWS on thin ice with Obama HQ in Chicago but Sun-Sentinel is ignoring the story


FoxNewsChannel video: Krauthammer: Romney needs to 'unleash Paul Ryan' August 19, 2012. http://youtu.be/lIhciMhZyIY

The Weekly Standard
Why Ryan Matters
William Kristol
August 27, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 46
Vice presidential picks don’t matter. Except when they do. If John Kerry had chosen Dick -Gephardt instead of John Edwards in 2004, and had then parked Gephardt in Ohio during the general election campaign to make the Democratic case to working-class voters, Kerry might well have won the Buckeye State—and the presidency.
Read the rest of the excellent essay, esp. the last two paragraphs at:

Another good piece was this on one

The Washington Post
Ryan’s friends have long seen the GOP lightning rod as a leader in waiting
By Michael Leahy
Published: August 19, 2012

So far, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz hasn't gone so far as to ape an Elementary School principal promising to have her head shaved if all her students read ten blooks over the summer and improve their tests scores, or in her case, promising to get her locks clipped completely if Romney-Ryan wins, but we still have 76 days for her to think of it and blurt it out.

Speaking of DWS, here's another piece you won't be reading in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel if any of her many trained poodles over there have anything to do with it, though logically you should, right?
Supposedly, DWS is on the hot seat! 
Or is it on thin ice? 
She's on one of the other, which ever you find personally worse in the summer.


The Weekly Standard
Book: Wasserman Schultz Most Unpopular Obama Campaign Surrogate
By Daniel Halper
8:33 AM, August 20, 2012
According to a new ebook released today by Politico writer Glenn Thrush, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, is the most unpopular of all surrogates for President Obama's reelection campaign. That finding is the product of polling done by the Obama campaign, according to Thrush.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/book-wasserman-schultz-most-unpopular-obama-campaign-surrogate_650276.html


The Washington Post
Report: Obama campaign has doubts about DNC chair
Posted by Rachel Weiner on August 20, 2012 at 7:36 am
President Obama’s Chicago team is not thrilled with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, according to a new ebook from Politico’s Glenn Thrush.
Read the rest of the post at:  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/08/20/report-obama-campaign-has-doubts-about-dnc-chair/

Don't believe me?
Okay, check the Sun-Sentinel for yourself: nothing about it as of right now.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=Debbie+Wasserman-Schultz&target=adv_article&date=07%2F23%2F2012-08%2F22%2F2012&range=pre&facet=

As for the author of the book, the last time the Sun-Sentinel ran a piece by Glenn Thrush was April 28, 2012, so it's clear that they have not touched the story, even though it's right there in front of them.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=%22Glenn+Thrush%22&target=adv_article
Hmm-m...

Yes, her crew over at the newspaper is definitely looking out for her, as per usual. 
Just saying... the facts are the facts.
If this sort of thing had been said about Rep. Allen West at GOP HQ based on some sort of polling, the paper would've had it on the front page ASAP, so what's the Sun-Sentinel's explanation for the complete absence of information in print on this re DWS?

So what exactly happened to John Heilemann?
He used to be right more often than wrong, and would often have something original and interesting to bring to the table for discussion, but at some point over the past few years when I wasn't looking, he seems to have gone into a slump or a funk or tailspin or something, because he's now lost his bearings, keeps repeating the same things things over-and-over instead of saying something original or interesting.

"They think [Ryan] is a gift to them."
Obama Team ‘Could Not Be Happier’ with Paul Ryan Pick
Paul Ryan Was Hardly a ‘Courageous Choice’ for Mitt Romney

Like a once-valuable veteran pitcher on a contending team who has lost his fastball -his judgment has gotten worse and worse
Just like his predictions.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/08/12/Dems-Pretend-to-be-Excited-Over-Ryan-Pick-They-Celebrated-Cheney-Too

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Getting the government out of the game of picking winners and losers! It's as if Paul Ryan was reading my mind, and warning the City of Hallandale Beach, as well as the army of lobbyists and Poverty Pimps all over South Florida and Tallahassee who have their hand out and a campaign check at the ready - Video of Rep. Paul Ryan while House Budget Comm. Chairman on Entrepreneurial Capitalism vs Crony Capitalism - #PaulRyan, #RomneyRyan




HouseBudgetCommittee video: House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan: Entrepreneurial Capitalism vs Crony Capitalism. Uploaded August 2, 2012.
http://youtu.be/fDzRFSPglM4

Getting the government out of the game of picking winners and losers!
It's as if Paul Ryan was reading my mind, and warning the City of Hallandale Beach, as well as the army of lobbyists and Poverty Pimps all over South Florida and Tallahassee who have their hand out and a campaign check at the ready - Video of Rep. Paul Ryan while House Budget Comm. Chairman on Entrepreneurial Capitalism vs Crony Capitalism - #PaulRyan, #RomneyRyan



Saturday, August 11, 2012

I'm very psyched -and greatly relieved!- by the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential nominee; Integrity, optimism and a tenacious work-ethic are Ryan's hallmarks



Prosperity Project video: The Crisis. Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, outlines the debt crisis we face. Uploaded April 5, 2011.

His future plans made clearer, Marco Rubio and his family and friends can now finally breathe again and have a little more personal space, a more normal life, though this necessarily means that many of the most ardently pro-amnesty immigrant groups, and their allies in the news media, will now have to get off their summer diet of anti-Rubio remarks and anecdotes for new agitprop pieces attacking Rubio for being, well, part of the norm, and not one of their puppets.

This will also mean the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times can finally wake-up from their long summer slumber and sleepwalking, 86 their Marco Rubio Veep infatuation, smell the Cuban coffee, get out of their air conditioned offices, and get moving on transforming their heretofore lame and going-thru-the-motions 2012 presidential and Florida election coverage, so much of which has been just plain pitiful the past year in the view of not just myself but friends of mine who work at national news organizations, who are rightly puzzled and chagrined at what passes for news coverage in the two largest markets of the fourth-largest state in the country.

Romney's choice of optimistic, hard-working and media-genic Jack Kemp acolyte Paul Ryan also means that we can count on Debbie Wasserman Schultz going into full ZEALOT mode in the coming week, as she once again abandons her constituents in Broward to play the role of attack dog as she criss-crosses the country, only venturing into safe Dem districts.

Yes, we can count on seeing a steady stream of photographs of her predictable nonsensical threats before older voters and rich Democratic donors, her odd facial expressions and hairstyles will produce photographs which will, in some cases, will, no doubt, prove priceless.

His Midwestern friendliness and amiability will continue to stand out in sharp contrast to her shrill, know-it-all, govt. as savior nostrums, and her patronizing glares.

As you newcomers to the blog can see, below, I've already been a strong supporter of Paul Ryan and his economic prescription... and have been waiting patiently to see when and if I should share some of the knowledge here about Ryan, a man whom a week ago, 99% of South Florida's reporters couldn't have told you anything about other than that he was from Wisconsin. 


Here's one of the sources for information that THEY and you can trust: the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelhttp://www.jsonline.com/

See my previous blog post, with video, on Congressman Paul Ryan and his budget prowess of April 8, 2011 titled, Michael Barone on Paul Ryan's AEI speech taking on his budget critics: "Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/michael-barone-on-paul-ryans-aei-speech.html


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: House Budget Press <HBCPress@mail.house.gov>
Date: Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Subject: Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
To:



PAUL RYAN | House Budget Committee
Forward to a FriendVisit Our Website

PRESS RELEASES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 10, 2012
PERMALINK
CONTACT:
William Allison (Ryan)
202-226-6100

Stephen Miller, Andrew Logan (Sessions)
202-228-0575
Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
WASHINGTON – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions of Alabama issued the following joint statement marking the 1,200th day since Senate Democrats have last adopted a budget:
“Tomorrow marks another disappointing record for the United States Senate: Senate Majority Leader Reid and his Democrat conference will have gone an unprecedented 1,200 days without adopting a budget plan as required by law. Not only have they failed to adopt a budget, but with America under threat of financial calamity, they have refused to even present a plan for public scrutiny. Last year, Majority Leader Reid said it would be ‘foolish’ to do a budget and the legally required Budget Committee mark-up was cancelled. No plan from his conference has seen the light of day. He refuses to disclose who he plans to tax and how he plans to spend taxpayers’ money.
“This year, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad committed to bringing forth a budget plan and conducting a mark-up, and was shut down by the Majority Leader. Once again, the conference put forward no proposal and offered nothing on the Senate floor. The Senate Majority did not offer up a single plan or even cast a vote in support of a single plan. By contrast, House Republicans laid out and adopted a credible, responsible plan that avoids this looming debt crisis with spending cuts and pro-growth tax reform while preserving the safety net.
"Never before has our nation needed a budget and a long-term financial plan as badly as it needs one now. The Congressional Budget Office stated this week that the federal government is on track to run another trillion-dollar deficit this year and our debt will continue to explode with this continued lack of leadership. In addition to huge deficits, we face a $4 trillion tax increase at the end of this year and a sequester that Defense Secretary Panetta said will ‘do catastrophic damage to the military.’ Responsible and moral leadership requires the Senate to meet its legal obligation to pass a budget and to begin to address the fiscal crisis that is fast approaching our nation.”
###
Youtube Twitter Facebook

-----

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Still waiting for South Florida news media to mention that Frederica Wilson was only FL Rep. to vote YES to increase debt limit?


Heritage Foundation video: The Debt Limit: Made Simple
http://youtu.be/7yJRci2pARk

Still waiting for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes or any local Miami TV newscast to actually mention that FL-17 Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was THE only U.S. Rep. in Florida to vote YES for increasing the national debt Tuesday? (Wilson was on the losing side of a 319-97 vote.)
Don't hold your breath!



Fox News Channel: U.S. Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on the House of Representatives rejecting a debt ceiling increase
http://youtu.be/y3FYXnYswnQ

Since February 1st, over four months ago, Wilson's name has been mentioned in the Sun-Sentinel exactly TWICE, and neither time in relation to anything that's an important every day issue to South Broward residents like me who have the great misfortune to be mis-represented by her in Congress.

As for the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes -whose Daily Pulp blog people are positively deserting in droves ever since Bob Norman left for Channel 10, WPLG-TV, leaving only the name of his blog, not the spirit of it- they've mentioned Wilson exactly... ONCE.

And THAT was about something that was originally reported in the Sun-Sentinel!

Compare and contrast that paucity of useful information with the NewTimes' very creepy stalker-like behavior and observation of Rep. Allen West's every move and word, examined and then re-examined at the NewTimes -can you really even call them reporters?- as if they were amateur Kremlinologists trying to keep all their competing theories for what's 'really' happening, straight in their own heads.

Well, I mean besides thinking of how many times they can use the phrase 'tea party' as a pejorative. You'd think that at a certain point they'd realize that no longer rankles adn just comes across as annoying... but no.

From my perspective, I've always found it such a huge turn-off to see people with resources and opportunities to inform completely squander their time and resources, and even worse, compound that fwrite in so self-evident a biased fashion, and that's true whether you're talking about the Herald, the Sun-Sentinel or NewTimes, all of whom are GUILTY of this everyday to varying degrees -from perfectly awful-to-perfectly dreadful.

Seriously, those three are our print media choices in South Florida the year 2011?
Sadly, yes.


And when are the top management at the Broward NewTimes going to FINALLY post their public email addresses on their website, like the much-maligned and ridiculed Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel, which I originally mentioned here on January 11th, with the headline,
A longstanding question about the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes that nobody else ever asks publicly at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/longstanding-question-about.html .

It's almost halfway thru the year 2011 and the NewTimes STILL doesn't list theirs so that readers can directly contact people with complaints about mistakes, errors and examples of apparent bias, and cc or bcc others with their comments.
Pretty backwards if you ask me, and not exactly the sort of thing that imbues people with confidence about sharing confidential information.

It's already June, when exactly are Wilson's Town Hall meetings with residents in SE Broward this summer, including Hallandale Beach?

Perhaps you should call her office and ask her staff, since it's clear the local news media aren't the least bit curious, even while thinking nothing of printing Allen West's, attending his meetings and then publicizing professional misfits who want to draw attention to themselves at his meetings, not attention to issues.

Heritage Foundation's YouTube Channel:

Bob Norman's new blog at Channel 10, WPLG-TV, Miami:

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sen. Marco Rubio on NBC's Meet the Press re federal budget, debt ceiling, Medicare, et al; FL U.S. Senate 2012 possibilities



NBC-TV's Meet the Press
video
-Host David Gregory speaks to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida about the 2012 federal budget, the federal debt ceiling, saving Medicare, the (Paul) 'Ryan Plan,' and U.S. foreign policy, to wit, Libya.

http://youtu.be/GdtR7s-nqcE

If you are someone who considers themselves pretty well-informed and are watching the video of this morning's Meet the Press program from outside of the U.S., and get the distinct impression that Sen. Rubio, who has been in office less than four months, is being asked to explain -and or defend- public policies in more detail than many longstanding members of the U.S. Congress you can name, who get nothing but softball questions... take a bow.
You are correct.


Sen. Rubio's
YouTube Channel is at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio

U.S. House Budget Comm. YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseBudgetCommittee

American Roadmap YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanRoadmap

The other U.S. Senator from Florida is Democratic two-termer Bill Nelson, who is up for re-election in 2012. He's a nice enough guy, but NOT nearly as dynamic, savvy or articulate as what this complex and crazy-quilt of a state demands, Florida being the country's fourth-largest.

Sen. Nelson's YouTube Channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/SenBillNelson

I won't be voting for Nelson next year and currently have no GOP preference, but I am AGAINST a few GOP candidates for the office, the most prominent being the myopic, ethically-troubled Florida State Senate President, Mike Haridopolos; he's bad news personified!


I'd much prefer Florida State Senator
Paula Dockery or Orange County (Orlando) mayor Teresa Jacobs, both of whom are very smart and articulate people full of ideas who are NOT at all afraid to speak (and vote) against the state political orthodoxy and the establishment of Tallahassee in particular, and Florida in general.
Nor are they afraid to speak against their own party and supporters when they think they're wrong.


For an excellent example of that attitude, read these two Mike Thomas columns from the Orlando Sentinel, since they're positive pieces of a sort that very, very few Florida pols could earn.


-----

Orlando Sentinel

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/os-mike-thomas-performing-arts-center20101222,0,3790804.column

Teresa Jacobs has to challenge performing-arts center bailout

By Mike Thomas COMMENTARY
8:50 p.m. EST, December 22, 2010
Orlando is $61 million short in getting the performing-arts center off the ground. So the city and arts supporters are hitting up Teresa Jacobs, Orange County's mayor-elect, for an advance on almost half of it.

She might as well get used to people groveling for money.


I have long supported an arts center. But this is like old Uncle Al, flat broke with holes in his shoes, hitting you up for $500 because he's got a sure thing at the track.


Give it to him and you know he's coming back for more.

None of this is a surprise for those of us who have followed the saga of the three downtown venues — the arts center, the arena and the Citrus Bowl.


The county budget-crunchers knew this day was coming back in 2007 when they negotiated the $1.1 billion venues deal with Orlando. They thought Mayor Buddy Dyer and Co. were out of their fiscal minds for taking on this much risk.


So the county built a firewall.

It would give the city enough resort-tax money to build a new Magic arena for billionaire Rich DeVos.


But the performing-arts center and Citrus Bowl would have to get in line behind a long list of priorities already funded by the resort tax.


If Buddy's gamble failed, the county was protected.


On paper, at least. That doesn't take into account the intangible of political pressure that would accompany the request for a bailout. If you don't give us the money, the project will not get built, and it will be your fault.


Now that we are there, what will Jacobs do?


She is, by nature, a cautious fiscal conservative. In fact, it was Jacobs who put a caveat in the venues deal, requiring that the arts center be fully funded before any debt was issued to waste money on a Citrus Bowl renovation.


During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs was criticized for being too focused on details when the job required a big-picture consensus builder. Being branded as the person who killed the arts center wouldn't help that perception.

But there are so many pitfalls here, she could hardly be blamed for doing so. Here are a few of them:


•The city is broke, which raises the question of where it plans to come up with its half of the shortfall. The county also doesn't have a spare $30 million stuffed in a mattress, meaning it could be forced to raid a reserve fund set aside for the convention center. That would be ill-advised.


•This deal would allow construction of phase one of the arts center — an amplified arena for events such as Broadway shows and a small 300-seat theater. Will the city come back for another cash advance when it comes time to build phase two — a 1,700 seat acoustical hall?


•The county could be the money pile of last resort to cover operating deficits. Some of this tab was going to be paid by leasing property next to the center for a hotel and office building. But the economy put the kibosh on that.


There also are disturbing rumors about donors backing out of their pledges, which could create an even deeper fiscal hole for the county to fill down the road.


The problem in dealing with Orlando is that the city is tapped out. So the minute a bulldozer rolls onto the site, the county could find itself sucked into a black hole, from which there is no politically feasible escape.


At a minimum, Jacobs should insist that the city raise its $31 million share of the shortfall first. She then should demand to see an updated list of all donor pledges and the contracts they signed with the arts center.

The county needs some guarantee it won't bankroll operating expenses.


The city must agree not to spend any more money renovating the Citrus Bowl until the arts center is finished and its operating costs are known and accounted for.

Every dime the city spends on that empty stadium is another dime the county probably will have to make up for at the arts center.

Finally, Jacobs should insist the city contact Magic owner Rich DeVos about providing a loan, which would be repaid as resort-tax funds become available. He could take his interest out of the $10 million he has pledged to the arts center.

Jacobs has a lot of options. The worst one is writing out a check for $30 million with no questions and no demands.
-----

Orlando Sentinel

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-mike-thomas-jacobs-arts-021311-20110212,0,351626.column

Orange Mayor Jacobs gives Orlando a dose of reality on arts center

Mike Thomas COMMENTARY
5:59 p.m. EST
, February 12, 2011

Business as usual in this town officially ended at noon on Feb. 10.

That's when Orange Mayor Teresa Jacobs hit the send button and delivered a scathing review of the planned performing-arts center to inboxes across Orange County.

Her staff uncovered millions in waste, slipshod construction contracts, double-billings and overall gross mismanagement. Given that Orlando is ultimately in charge of building the center, she left City Hall in pretty much the same shape that the Air Force left Baghdad in 2003.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer emerged from the rubble hours later to answer questions like: "Are you embarrassed?"

You better believe it. He also was livid. This was a major breach of protocol. Proper etiquette requires that mayoral combat be conducted by backstabbing in private.

This all began in December when the city made the big mistake of asking the county for $30 million to help cover a funding shortfall for the arts center.

Normally, the county would have put up token resistance before succumbing to political pressure and writing a check.

The days of normalcy are over.

Jacobs said no. And then she unleashed her advisers and staff on an arts-center cost-cutting mission. Needless to say, mission accomplished.

Normally this would have been handled behind the scenes.

But Jacobs and her people grew suspicious of the city's good intentions as the process dragged on.

She also believes that full public disclosure is in the best interest of the public. Judging by her landslide election victory last November, the public agrees.

And so Jacobs gave the public what it voted for. She publicly nuked Buddy.

Somewhere, former Orange Mayor Rich Crotty is either smiling or wincing. Jacobs used to nuke him all the time when she served on the commission.

But just to be clear, Jacobs does not launch unless the target presents itself.

There are bigger problems with this arts center than mismanagement of planning and construction.

The city's reserve fund to cover its bond debt is underfunded. The endowment fund that will be used to help cover center operations expenses is grossly underfunded.

The city's downtown taxing district is tapped out.

Construction of the acoustical hall — the venue most cherished by local arts groups — has been put off indefinitely. And each year of delay will add an estimated $16 million to the price tag.

And then there are the things not in the report.

Last year, Fitch Ratings downgraded the city's Magic arena bonds to junk status.

Orlando has borrowed $90 million, with the loan based on the value of Centroplex property that's not worth half that much. Dyer has thrown $10 million at sprucing up the FloridaCitrus Bowl and now is aiming money at the "Creative Village.

The city's tab for pension benefits exceeds $50 million a year.

And this was on our front page last April: "For the second year in a row, the city of Orlando faces a staggering deficit of tens of millions of dollars and will look to erase the red ink by paring city staff and cutting services."

Yet in December, Dyer said he could cough up an additional $31 million for the arts center.

Jacobs is rightly concerned that she is doing business with Greece.

And when Dyer can't pull any more money out of his magic hat, the county will be the deep pocket of last resort once construction of the arts center begins. Even more disturbing is that the city and arts supporters are in a mad dash to get construction going. Their theory is that everything will work itself out once the bulldozers arrive.

It's a faith-based initiative, whereas the county administration building is filled with fiscal atheists who don't believe in miracles.

So what happens next?

The prevailing theory is that Dyer and the board running the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts will tell Jacobs to butt out and try to get the project started without any more help from the county. That certainly should scare the bejabbers out of big-money donors and city taxpayers.

A better idea is for Dyer to go to Jacobs, get her terms of surrender for more financial backing, let her more-experienced staff help salvage this mess and worry about revenge some other day.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Michael Barone on Paul Ryan's AEI speech taking on his budget critics: "Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms"



AEI video: U.S. House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan answers questions at the AEI HQ in Washington, D.C. and directly challenges critics of his reform plan.
April 6, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYCb-UyHc90
"This is the most predictable economic crisis we've ever had in this country..."


Rasmussen Reports

Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms
A Commentary By Michael Barone Thursday, April 07, 2011

"My worst experience was the financial crisis of September 2008," responded House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan yesterday to a reporter's question about Democrats' attacks on the budget he unveiled earlier in the day.

"What if the president and your representative saw it coming and could have prevented it from happening?" Ryan said. "What would you think of them if they didn't?" A hush came over the audience at the American Enterprise Institute, where I am a resident fellow.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_michael_barone/ryan_steals_march_on_obama_as_fiscal_crisis_looms

See also:
http://budget.house.gov/

http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseBudgetCommittee

http://prosperityproject.org/

House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on 'Path to Prosperity'; the drivers of debt and the overdue reforms needed in FY 2012 budget -charts aplenty!



U.S. House Budget Committee video: The Path to Prosperity: America's two futures, visualized, presented by Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

http://youtu.be/Xwv5EbxXSmE

Rasmussen Reports
Paul Ryan's Growth Budget
A Commentary By Lawrence Kudlow April 7, 2011

Of all the discussion about Paul Ryan's big-bang budget plan, the element I like best was caught in this Wall Street Journal op-ed title: "The GOP Path to Prosperity." In other words, it's a growth budget. It has plenty of spending cuts, but it also has significant pro-growth tax reform.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_lawrence_kudlow/paul_ryan_s_growth_budget



U.S. House Budget Committee video: Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan
on Fox News Channel's Mike Huckabee Show details drivers of debt; Calls for honest leadership and real reform
http://youtu.be/SiZj1Uncl9Y



U.S. House Budget Committee video: Behind the Scenes: Budget Listening Session with Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan.
http://youtu.be/otlOCQyE8oY
Related article at: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/17/gop.budget.plan/index.html

See also:

http://budget.house.gov/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseBudgetCommittee
http://prosperityproject.org/

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan discuss the federal budget and why they're against 'business as usual' votes in Washington that preserve the status quo

Fox News Channel video: Sen. Marco Rubio on 'Fox News Sunday' with host Chris Wallace - April 3, 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZRDCHGMILs

Speaking of being articulate and specific about what your own personal policy positions are regarding the looming federa
l budget battle and the national debt, so that there's no confusion or misunderstanding, as we were the other day with Marco Rubio, the opposite take on that approach causes me to ask aloud whether Sen. Bill Nelson is still among us.

The South Florida news media seems not to be too keen to actually ask Nelson where he stands on any of these things and what he wants to do or cut or anything.


No, they almost seem to be going out of their way to ignore
Nelson, which causes me to ask whether that's for his lack of a cogent plan, strategy or framework, or whether it's just that they know in advance that, after eleven years in the Senate, he'll say absolutely nothing noteworthy in his usual earnest, plodding style, and they don't want to waste their time doing that, knowing that it's an hour they'll never ever have again.

Which is one of the reasons that while today is April 3rd, you CAN'T find a single story in the Miami Herald this year where Bill Nelson actually talks about the federal budget and the debt ceiling, and what he thinks should be done or how he will vote.
Go ahead, I dare you.

It simply can't be found -there isn't one.


Yes, with every passing day, collectively, the Miami Herald and the rest of the South Florida news media just continue walking deeper-and-deeper into the black hole of utter irrelevancy...





Fox News Channel video: Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of U.S. House Budget Comm.: on
Fox News Channel's 'Sean Hannity Show' - March 1, 2011 - "House GOP Will Lead Where the President Has Failed"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-bgVl7EhNI

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Orlando Sentinel

www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-mike-thomas-medicare-040311-20110402,0,2086543.column

Rubio is right to push for cuts to senior programs

Mike Thomas

COMMENTARY

9:49 PM EDT, April 2, 2011

Marco Rubio says he isn't interested in running for vice president in 2012. And to confirm that, he then said we have to scale back senior entitlement programs.

That got him lots of national attention, and a resounding round of silence from his Republican colleagues in Washington.

They didn't win the U.S. House this year, with an eye on the White House next year, only to risk it all by alienating the people who comprise the biggest voting bloc.


You will not see a Republican pointing to the retirees at a Tea Party gathering and saying, "You're the biggest part of the problem.''

Does anyone remember "A Roadmap for America's Future'' put out by Paul Ryan, the whiz-kid, budget-slashing congressman from Wisconsin who wanted to overhaul Medicare?


Or how about that report by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that recommended entitlement cuts?


Associate the word entitlement with the words cut or reform and off you go to the Bermuda Triangle.


I hope Marco fares better.

He says he would keep existing entitlements intact for those older than 55, an attempt to appease what former Sen. Alan Simpson calls the "greediest generation.''


This might work for Social Security, where there is time to fix it.


But Medicare is dragging us off the cliff now. It is so daunting and so complex that Washington is paralyzed.


Tackling Medicare not only means taking on the seniors, but the entire medical industrial complex that depends on Medicare's billions. Sending old folks for body scans is a huge part of the economy.


Taking money away is very hard for a political system designed to give it away.


Making matters worse, many seniors believe that since they have paid into Medicare their entire lives, they have earned their benefits. Reducing benefits equates to theft.


But the cost of medical care has risen so sharply that, on average, seniors now pay for less than half the benefits they receive.


This is what differentiates Medicare from Social Security, where workers indeed have paid for most of their benefits.


With Social Security, they get a single check each month for the same amount. That makes planning relatively easy.


But Medicare is an open checkbook that pays for an unlimited amount of services.


The medical industry has adapted by creating a system based on quantity. More specialists. More tests. More procedures. More medications.


Outcomes and cost-effectiveness do not matter.


This has driven up costs while at the same time we have an exploding population of seniors. Medicare is, by far, the biggest driver of our long-term national debt.


Medicaid, which provides care to the poor, would be right there with it but states share this burden. And a growing percent of the Medicaid budget is directed at nursing-home care.


Sure, we can cut fraud and waste, as the refrain goes. But any savings will be dwarfed by the sheer number of baby boomers entering the system.


During the next 20 years, we will add eight beneficiaries to the Medicare rolls for every new worker. And these seniors will be more obese and laden with more self-inflicted chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Help, we need more immigrants!


I am 56. And as much as I'd like Marco Rubio to include me in the existing system, I don't want to make my kids my indentured servants by having to pay for it.


A worker making $20,000 a year should not have to subsidize health care for snow birds sitting in their Palm Beach condos. We need to adjust premiums, deductibles and co-pays according to income.

People are too disconnected from the cost of their health care. And that encourages abuse of the system.


We need more gatekeepers. We need fewer specialists, and they need to make less money. We need more general practitioners and they need to make more money. We need nurses to diagnose the flu instead of doctors.


We need longer wait times for non-emergency procedures.


We need more docs in Walmart and more Solantic clinics in strip malls.


We need more end-of-life planning to avoid the onslaught of machines that only delay the inevitable.


We need more plans and cheaper options.

We need what we can afford.


We have no choice. The Chinese are going to stop buying our debt.


The longer we put this off, the worse it will be.


It is why Marco Rubio is one of the most important people in Washington right now.

Reader comments at: http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/20/orlnews/os-mike-thomas-medicare-040311-20110402/10

The Mike Thomas blog: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_columnist_mikethomas/

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http://www.spacehelpwanted.com/blog/

http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio

http://www.youtube.com/user/RepPaulRyan

http://prosperityproject.org/

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Hotline TV looks to the post-November 2nd future and does some GOP STARGAZING: Four Who Would Shine Under A Republican Majority

8/12/10 Hotline TV hosts Josh Kraushaar and Reid Wilson look to the post November 2nd future and do some GOP STARGAZING: Four Who Would Shine Under A Republican Majority.

The GOP needs 39 new seats to take over the U.S. House of Representatives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEGO1aAJnpM



Here again are the four stars they mention:

4.) Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Calif., 22nd District,
elected 2006
http://kevinmccarthy.house.gov/

3.) Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, 6th District, elected 2003
http://hensarling.house.gov/
http://www.jebhensarling.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/RepJebHensarling#p/a

2.) Marco Rubio of Florida,
former Speaker of the Florida House and 2010 GOP nominee for U.S. Senate
http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcoRubio

1.) Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, 1st District
, elected 1998

http://paulryan.house.gov/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RepPaulRyan#p/a

A Roadmap for America's Future

http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/

Rep. Paul Ryan at The Brookings Institution: Prosperity vs Austerity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWYAEjVf2cM



See also: Republican Study Committee
http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/


The last time I posted a Hotline TV video was June 29, 2010
Hotline TV's Quinn McCord & Tim Sahd: Which U.S. House Dems are most at risk?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/hotline-tvs-quinn-mccord-tim-sahd-which.html

Monday, March 30, 2009

GOP House budget "blueprint" alternatives; GOP rising stars need a mutiny now!

Stayed up late to watch the tape I'd made earlier Sunday
of the first two hours of Little Dorrit on PBS' Masterpiece
Theatre while I was watching some things on C-SPAN,
and am now so wide awake, I thought that I'd try to
finish this so you can think about some of this Monday
morning.
The miniseries is fantastic, as this LA Times review
makes clear!

If the Herald or Sun-Sentinel were in the top rank of daily
newspapers, and actually had political writers who knew
anything about either economics or markets, or consumer
psychology for that matter, they'd have figured out some
way to make sure that some version of this very important
bit of news from Politico.com about Congressman Paul
Ryan actually made it into their print version.
Or, had actually ever mentioned Ryan before in a serious
and meaningful story.

I've checked their archives and -shocker!- they haven't.
There's no reason to imagine that's going to change
anytime soon, much less, before both papers are
kaput next year, as I fully expect, before July 4th,
2010.

Ryan and some colleagues -whose names you have
never read about in either paper or ever see on
network TV- did all the hard work in crafting together
an alternative budget to the White House plan.
Before they could polish it and release it, though,
someone else in the GOP House leadership panicked,
deciding that the GOP had to ignore what was actually
being worked on, and instead, responded to media criticism,
thereby releasing something this week just to meet some
sort of imaginary deadline in order to respond to Obama's
numbers.

(It's sort of like someone who sends an accusative
email when they're mad late at night, rather than
in writing it all out, but saving it to Draft so you
can look at it again the next morning when you've
presumably calmed down.
You know, like Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper
really should've done last summer, when she sent
HB civic activist Michael Butler and myself a crazy
rant full of mis-placed pique, mis-spellings and 'straw
men,' just because I'd sent him an email earlier asking
him to consider meeting me -and perhaps some
other HB residents- over the weekend at Starbucks
or Denny's, to talk about some of the problems in
the city we rightly attribute to her poor and faulty
leadership.
Someone -I have my strong suspicion!- forwarded
the letter to Cooper and then she sent her wacky
response out after midnight, usually NOT a good
idea!)

Instead of listening to what Rep. Paul Ryan and Minority
Whip Eric Cantor were saying, the GOP got spooked
and panicked, releasing a 19-page pamphlet that was
rightly mocked as a joke on the various cablenets and
by the Beltway press because it was, in fact, a joke.

(On weekends, I used to spend lots of time with friends
driving around Cantor's congressional district, which
includes large parts of the beautiful Virginia countryside
southwest of Arlington County and northwest of Richmond,
especially Culpepper and Spotsylvania.)

Why do the House GOP leaders keep engaging in
malignant self-destruction?
Why not actually let one of the the smart persons actually
doing the heavy-lifting, whom everyone respects -i.e. Ryan-
actually be the point person to release the GOP House
budget alternative, and answer the media's questions?
Because, call me crazy, it might actually turn out to be
a good idea to let the person who actually knows what's
what, answer the questions that House Minority Leader
John Boehner can't possibly know

The problem described in the Politico article is exactly
the sort of dysfunctional problem that will continue to
fester as long as someone with a such a bland personality
like John Boehner remains in charge of the GOP House.
He's like a TV weatherman, in that in the 15 years I was
in DC and on Capitol Hill, despite numerous opportunities,
he never once impressed me with his insight or originality.
Not once.

Instead, he always said exactly what you expect,
just like our TV weatherman:
"Warm with a chance of rain in the afternoon."

He's someone who never met an opportunity knocking
on the door that he didn't foolishly ignore.
Sometimes you actually have to open the door,
you know?

Boehner is the sort of person you'd actually want
running the Chamber of Commerce from a mid-size
Midwestern city with ambitions, or even a place like
Greater Fort Lauderdale for that matter.
The guy who everyone respects, who has professional
connections and who is always open to helping the
community, whether that's running the foundation
that helps gives underprivilged kids toys, money for
college, whatever.
What he isn't, though, is someone who should
ever be in front of TV cameras, talking policy!

When he walks into a hardware store, the brand
new tools in their shrink-wrapped packaging
even become DULLER!

As many of you may know from conversations with me,
I like Mike Pence -and not just because he's from
Indiana- but he is not without some major form/function
problems, too, and has really blown some opportunities
as well over the past few years, when he's either said
what I thought was the wrong thing at the wrong time,
or allowed a situation to roil by failing to respond quickly
enoughthe wrio.
I wonder if part of the problem is that for him to actually
succeed, they have to throw Boehner overboard, and
it's just not in his personality to do that.
The result is the House GOP drifts along like shipwrecked
passengers on a dinghy, trying desperately to figure out
which direction to row towards when there is not a spit
of land in sight.

Meanwhile, when the country really needs smart and
well-thought out alternatives to many of what I believe
are the Obama administration's very bad ideas and
policy prescriptions, they keep rowing in circles,
not willing to say aloud that the airline pilot may know
a lot about flying, but doesn't know a damn about
navigation from the perspective of the dinghy in the water.

As a moderate DLC Democrat, I don't think it does the
country any good for there not to be a reasonable check
and pushback on Obama's bad ideas and policies,
but I think those alternatives need to offer real solutions,
not simply be slogans for future congressional campaigns.

Republicans who care really ought to be calling for a
(Caine) Mutiny before they wind-up like Gilligans Island!
Stuck!

After reading the Politico article below, go to

House Republicans Unveil FY 2010 Budget Alternative

House Min. Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was joined
by several of his Republican colleagues at a press conference
on Capitol Hill during which they unveiled their alternative
to President Obama's FY 2010 budget.
Washington, DC : 15 min.

After that, watch the 15-minute segment I watched on
C-SPAN Sunday with Rep. Paul Ryan so you can see
how clearly and articulately he is in comparison.

Today's Highlights

Newsmakers

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) Outlines the GOP Alternative Budget

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) Outlines the GOP Alternative Budget

Sunday

Our guest on Newmakers is Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who discusses the Republican alternative to the FY 2010 Budget. The top Republican on the House Budget Cmte., Rep. Ryan outlines a “pro-growth” plan that limits borrowing and reduces the Federal debt. The alternative will be debated on the House Floor this week.

In case link above is messed up, it's at



March 26, 2009
Categories: House Republicans

Sources: GOP leaders split on budget "blueprint"

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0309/Aides_Cantor_Ryan_objected_to_GOPs_budget_blueprint.html

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In case you missed it the first time, this George Will
column from October speaks volumes.

A Vote Against Rashness

By George F, Will, georgewill@washpost.com
His name was George F. Babbitt. He was 46 years old now, in April 1920, and he made nothing in particular, neither butter nor shoes nor poetry, but he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.

-- Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1922)

We are waist deep in evasions because one cannot talk sense about the cultural roots of the financial crisis without transgressing this cardinal principle of politics: Never shall be heard a discouraging word about the public.

Concerning which, a timeless political trope is: Government should budget the way households supposedly do, conforming outlays to income. But the crisis came partly because so many households decided that it would be jolly fun to budget the way government does, hitching outlays to appetites.

Beneath Americans' perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar's worth of government. Conservatives participate in this, even though deficits fuel government's growth by obscuring its cost.

The people can emulate the government because credit has been democratized. Democratization of everything is supposedly an unquestionable good, but a blizzard of credit cards (1.5 billion of them, nine per cardholder), subsidized loans and cheap money has separated the pleasure of purchasing from the pain of paying. Furthermore, the entitlement mentality fostered by the welfare state includes a felt entitlement to a standard of living untethered from savings.

Populism flatters the people, contrasting their virtue with the alleged vices of some minority -- in other times, Jews or railroad owners or hard money advocates; today, the villain is "Wall Street greed," which is contrasted with the supposed sobriety of "Main Street." When people on Main Street misbehave by, say, buying houses for more than they can afford to pay, they blame the wily knaves who made them do it, such as the "nimble" Babbitt.

Knowing that heat breeds haste, errors and unintended consequences, George Washington praised the Senate as the saucer into which legislation is poured to cool. In this crisis, however, the House of Representatives has performed that function. Republicans, especially, slowed a Gadarene rush to ratify the deeply flawed original bailout legislation.

Voting against the bill -- against putting taxpayers' money at risk in order to clean up a mess that some people got rich by making -- was easy, but not necessarily wrong. The $700 billion figure exaggerated the plan's probable cost, but accurately measured something worse -- the enormous enlargement of government's power.

So the joint declaration by John McCain and Barack Obama that Congress should "rise above politics" was mere gas. The legislation touched elemental questions -- the meaning of justice, the parameters of freedom and the proper functions of government. Democrats charge that the crisis is market failure arising from an insufficiency of government, in the form of regulation. Well.

Suppose that in 1979 the government had not engineered the first bailout of Chrysler (it, Ford and GM are about to get $25 billion in subsidized loans). Might there have been a more sober approach to risk throughout corporate America?

Suppose there had never been implicit government backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Better yet, suppose those two had never existed -- there was homeownership before them, just not at a level that the government thought proper. Absent Fannie and Freddie -- absent government manipulation of the housing market -- would there have developed the excessive diversion of capital into the housing stock?

No presidential authority

The rising generation of thoughtful Republicans was represented on both sides of Monday's vote. Virginia's Eric Cantor, 45, and Wisconsin's Paul Ryan, 38, supported the legislation because they had helped to achieve substantial improvements in it, such as requiring financial institutions to help finance their bailout, giving the Treasury potentially valuable equity in firms revived by public funds and eliminating a slush fund for Democratic activists. Texas' Jeb Hensarling, 51, and Indiana's Mike Pence, 49, voted against what they considered a rescue model fundamentally flawed because (in Hensarling's words) it "could permanently and fundamentally change the role of government."

It is potentially catastrophic that this crisis comes in the context of a closely contested election and a collapse of presidential authority. Congress should disconnect from a public that cannot be blamed for being more furious about than comprehending of this opaque debacle. The public wanted catharsis, and respect for its center-right principles, and got both with Monday's House vote. It still needs protection against obliteration of the financial system.

See also:
Eric Cantor's congressional website: http://cantor.house.gov/index.htm
Eric Cantor's Whip Office website: http://www.republicanwhip.house.gov/

Paul Ryan's congressional website: http://www.house.gov/ryan/
His district includes Janesville, home of L.L. Bean,
as well as Racine, home of Johnson Wax, and Kenosha,
home of Snap-on and an important Chrysler engine plant,
which is currently laying-off employees for obvious reasons.