Paul Ryan gave an impassioned speech this morning to packed house at CPAC, hammering the Senate Democrats on the federal budget.
“This has been a really big week - we got white smoke from the Vatican and a budget from the Senate. They call their budget ‘a foundation for growth, restoring the promise of American opportunity.’ Wow. I feel like saluting already! But when you read it - you find that the Vatican’s not the only place blowing smoke this week.”
Making a stark contrast between the Senate plan and that of House Republicans he said, “Look - we take the opposite approach. Today, we’re not talking about cliffs, or ceilings or sequesters; we’re talking about solutions, and that’s how it should be. Our budget expands opportunity by growing the economy. It strengthens the safety net by re-tooling government and it restores fairness by ending cronyism. Our budget matches spending with income. We say to Washington ‘What we are willing to pay is what you are willing to spend. Period’.”
He also focused on the national debt, saying “A debt crisis would be more than an economic event; it would be a moral failure. You see - by cheapening our currency, the government would cheat us of our just rewards. By living beyond our means, the government is sending us a message. It is saying ‘If you plan ahead, if you make sacrifices for your kids, if you save - you’re a sucker’.”
He ended by imploring politicians to move past the debilitating climate of gridlock in Congress that’s preventing the passage of a sensible budget. “The government must function [more efficiently], because chaos is fertile ground for liberalism. You see when politicians have a crisis, what happens? They make deals in the dead of night, far away from public view. Lobbyists sneak in their pet projects and government grows. Cronyism spreads. It crowds out our communities and as it lurches from crisis to crisis, it freezes people in fear. Our budget puts an end to the brinksmanship. It restores proper order. We trim the government back to it’s proper size. We balance the budget.
Ryan is the current chairman of the House Budget Committee and was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President alongside Mitt Romney in the 2012 Presidential election.
Re-elected to Congress 7 times, never with less than 55% of the vote, Ryan is, perhaps, best known for his work on the federal budget. Ryan has developed, modified and proposed The Roadmap for America’s Future Act multiple times between 2009-2012. Nicknamed “The Ryan Plan”, the most recent version was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, but defeated in the Senate. His budget plan includes proposals privatizing Medicare for those currently under the age of 55 and funding Medicaid through block grants to the states, among other sweeping changes.
In 2012, the Associated Press said of Ryan that the Tea Party had gotten “one of its ideological heroes” named to the ticket when Romney chose him as his running mate, noting that Ryan’s political leanings espouse “individual rights, distrust of big government and an allegorical embrace of the Founding Fathers.”
H/T The Right Scoop
