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The Republican Party has a moral responsibility to offer alternatives to governing in Washington, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan said Friday. Speaking to members of the Journal Sentinel editorial board, as well as reporters and editors, the Janesville Republican said that the country is in a precarious state economically and that it's not enough to just win an election. "I don't like the direction the president is taking," Ryan said. "I should criticize those. I also should offer alternatives. It's not enough to run against somebody. We have a moral responsibility to offer alternatives . . . Our country is in...

Washington - Republicans should base their 2012 campaign on an agenda so bold and ambitious that victory would hand the party a transformational governing mandate, House budget chair Paul Ryan told a gathering of conservative activists here Thursday. "This election cannot be just a referendum on President (Barack) Obama's failed leadership," said Ryan, of Janesville. "Americans deserve a choice - a choice between two dramatically different visions for our country's future. As conservatives, we owe Americans that choice." The Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off its annual event Thursday, a mecca for presidential candidates, leading lawmakers, conservative celebrities and the...

House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., tells Bob Schieffer that President Obama's State of the Union address was "predictable" and explains why he doesn't think Congress will accomplish much this year.

Obama delays budget for 2013 By Erik Wasson - 01/23/12 02:08 PM ET President Obama will release his 2013 budget one week late, an administration official said Monday, the third time the administration has missed the legal deadline. Under the law, the budget is to be released on the first Monday in February, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be releasing the 2013 budget on Feb. 13. The Obama administration also delayed the release of the budget last year, waiting until Feb. 14. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the delay is symptomatic of a...

Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich is reacting positively to a bipartisan Medicare reform plan, tweeting, "The Wyden-Ryan bipartisan Medicare reform plan is a major breakthrough with Democrats and Republicans working together to solve big problems." The plan in question, from Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, would keep traditional Medicare as an option for new retirees when it goes into effect in 2022, though private insurance would also be able to engage in regulated competition with the government-run health care plan. The eligibility age would remain at 65 under the new plan. Ryan, the House...

Not just some offhand comment... GOP court-jester Ron Paul is now working the remark hard in Iowa as he attempts to sow doubt in the hearts of Newt-intenders... while the rest of us scratch our heads and wonder what ever possessed Gingrich to put it out there in the first place. After seeing the Ryan budget's approval rating tank in the polls for a month, Newt came out in mid-May stating he didn't find 'right-wing social engineering' any more palatable than ObamaCare's 'left-wing social engineering'. The former House Speaker then attempted to nuance that criticism of Ryan's Path to Prosperity in...

Racetracks exist at the pleasure of the state. As highly regulated businesses, they need the blessing of the state to set up shop, to open for business, to continue from year to year. If they want to hold more races per day than they used to, or to be open more days per week, or more weeks per year, they need the permission of the state. And, as in most states, the Illinois gaming commission is run, for the most part, by the governor. In 1969, Governor Otto Kerner (D, The Stables) was discovered to have accepted bribes (in the...

President Obama wants to spend $3.7 trillion next year and $5.7 trillion in 2021. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wants to spend $3.6 trillion next year and $4.7 trillion in 2021. The Republican Study Committee (RSC) wants to spend $3.6 trillion next year and $4.2 trillion in 2021. Rand Paul wants to spend $3.7 trillion next year and $3.4 trillion in 2016. The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has a "People's Budget" outline that, in keeping with representing a math-averse nation, doesn't include anything as straightforward as a series of annual-outlay numbers, though it does promise that outlays and revenues in 2021...

Dear Mike, Paul, and Marco. Help! As the current crop of Republican candidates have all flamed out or carry various electability anchors around their neck, I implore you to get into the race. It is not too late! Republicans are hungry for a candidate that can unite the party. I suspect that such a candidate could capture the nomination without much of a ground game in Iowa. With the right platform, you could quickly capture a majority of the Republican faithful. Essentially, the platform would be built around the already good ideas of the existing candidates. Such a candidate would...

Buffeted by allegations of sex club forays, Republican candidate Jack Ryan on Friday dropped out of the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. In a written statement, Ryan blamed the news media for the controversy, saying its interest in his personal life had gotten "out of control." "It's clear to me that a vigorous debate on the issues most likely could not take place if I remain in the race," Ryan said. "What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign -- the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to...

Seems like deja vu all over again when Barack Obama is running for office. He ran for the Senate against Jack Ryan until the liberal media was able to unseal a divorce settlement revealing sexual issues that forced Ryan from the race. Then came Alan Keyes and the media rushed to expose his lesbian daughter, which helped give us senator Obama, and the rest is history. Now comes conservative Herman Cain running strongly against Obama and the liberal media is at it again, releasing a 10-year-old sealed settlement, designed to help Obama win re-election. Seldom does an unsourced, sealed settlement...

I spoke with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) by phone a short time ago after the details of Mitt Romney’s spending and entitlement reform plan were released. It is fair to say that the often optimistic and cheery Ryan was downright effusive about the contents of the plan. Ryan told me, “Look at what he put out! This is a great development. It shows that the elusive adult conversation is taking place, but all on one side.” He ticked off the proposals including block-granting, cutting the federal workforce and entitlement reform. He said, “This tracks perfectly with the House budget.” He...

Ever since his Texas Rangers collapsed over the final two games of the World Series last week, Nolan Ryan says he hasn't watched the disappointing replay of David Freese's(notes) triple sailing over Nelson Cruz's(notes) head in the ninth inning of Game 6. He doesn't plan to, either. But while Ryan concedes he may accidentally see the replay while watching something else, everyone's favorite fireballer says he's going to make dang sure that another highlight won't be played when the Chicago White Sox come to opening day at Rangers Ballpark next April. That, of course, would be the clip of Ryan...

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) indicated on Tuesday that he has come around to Mitt Romney on the issue of healthcare. “Romney’s been very clear that he’s against ObamaCare and he’s going to repeal it. So I for a second don’t worry about whether he’s going to shy away from repealing the president’s health care law,” Ryan said in an interview with The Weekly Standard. (snip) Ryan went on to compliment Romney on a variety of issues. He described Romney as proving himself “pretty capable and strong and resilient” when it comes to the slew of GOP debates over the past...

He’s had enough. More than enough. In a high-voltage speech tomorrow at the Heritage Foundation, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan will tear into President Barack Obama’s recent push to raise taxes on wealthier Americans—including entrepreneurs and small business—to pay for more government spending. It’s what a Ryan aide calls “the politics of division, pitting Americans against each other, preying on the emotions of fear and envy.” Here are few choice bits of what Ryan is apparently going to say: 4. “Instead of policies that make it harder for Americans to rise, let’s lower the hurdles to upward mobility. That’s what...

Herman Cain named Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) as potential running mates should he secure the Republican presidential nomination for the 2012 election. Speaking Thursday on "The Steve Gill Show," Cain outlined the qualities he would like in a running mate, and then, unprovoked, offered specific names. “There are some people in Congress that are very, very good, that I respect and admire and that I would love to have on my team,” Cain said. “Whether that would be in a V.P. slot or in a key Cabinet slot … I’ll give you a name —...

Was Robin Ventura the right choice to be Sox manager? Do you like the White Sox's decision to name Robin Ventura as their new manager?

Yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said the following about the current GOP presidential field: I don't think they're yet talking about the things…that have a lot of zeros attached to them, the ones that are threatening to kill not just an economy but the entire idea of America, the idea of upward mobility from the bottom and tomorrow is better than today…I'll tell you what's bothering me a little bit [is] the president is clearly in very desperate political shape. And it seems more clear every day. And I worry a little bit, ironically,...

"I think the president has become a pyromaniac in a field of straw men. I think what he wants to do is set up those of us on the other side of the aisle as some caricature and assign policies to us that we don't have and then defeat those arguments."

A top House Republican accused President Obama of appealing to Americans' "fear, envy and anxiety" by pushing a new tax rate on people making more than $1 million annually, saying the "class warfare path" will only hurt the economy. "Class warfare ... may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, told "Fox News Sunday." The president is planning on proposing the new and higher rate as part of a broader long-term deficit-reduction plan he's unveiling Monday. It will likely include a mix of entitlement reform and...

....."Over the past decade, the thinking has been much less clear for conservatives. Being "pro-market" has been fundamentally confused with "pro-business." Conservatives who came to Congress to defend and promote free enterprise have often been led to believe that pathway lies in bolstering established firms as they navigate the maze of government regulations and taxes. These instincts are correct, but the implementation is often flawed. All too often, the results of these efforts have been to exacerbate crony capitalism - erecting barriers to entry against potential competitors to firms that are currently on top. For their part, companies seeking such...

Since getting wiped out in the 2010 election and failing in their massively-financed recall elections, Wisconsin’s Democrats have embarked on a permanent temper tantrum. Like little children, they apparently intend to stamp their feet and hold their breath until they get their way. Most recently, they infiltrated and disrupted a Rotary meeting at which Paul Ryan was speaking. More than forty policemen were needed to keep the unruly Democrats under control; they escorted twenty from the Rotary meeting and arrested three: It is hard to imagine Wisconsin voters returning these goofs to power any time soon.

Some of society's most intractable problems come not from its failures but from its successes. Often you can't get a good thing without paying a bad price. A prime example is our public old-age pension system Social Security. It has been completely successful in wiping out poverty among the elderly. Old ladies no longer have to eat cat food to survive. But we pay some prices for this. One is a lower savings rate. China has a humongous savings rate in part because it has no reliable old-age pension system. People have to save if they don't want to starve....

Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan has decided for a final time that he will not run for president in 2012, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned. Ryan, who began seriously considering a bid in late May after Indiana governor Mitch Daniels took himself out of the race, had consulted with top Republicans, including Karl Rove and Frank Luntz, as he contemplated his political future. And though many of those he talked with told him he would be a viable candidate in such a fluid race, even as a late entry, Ryan ultimately decided to continue his focus on debt and entitlement reform...

Republican fiscal conservatives are coalescing around a candidate for president — and he currently isn't in the race. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan have all encouraged House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan to run against Obama, The Weekly Standard reports. The policy wonk, known for "the Ryan plan" to eliminate the federal debt through dramatic spending cuts and reforms, has to date shown little interest in running. But the conservative magazine says his wife is "on board" if he decides to enter...

“We’ve got a good field,” Rove said last night on Hannity. “I don’t think it is the end, though, of the field. I think we are likely to see several other candidates think seriously about getting in. … I think Palin is gonna seriously look at it. … [She] has got a pretty active schedule in September. … I think Chris Christie and Paul Ryan are gonna look at it again … I’m starting to pick up some sort of vibrations that these kind of conversations are causing Christie and Ryan to tell the people who are calling them, you...

Not that my hopes as to what the Super Committee would accomplish were ever that high, but it still hurts to hear one of my congressional heroes call out the improbability of any meaningful accomplishment emerging from the work of the joint committee. The Wall Street Journal reports: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), a top choice among Republicans for a deficit-cutting super-committee formed last week, on Sunday sought to tamp down expectations for the panel.“I don’t think a grand bargain is going to come out of this,” Mr. Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. He said that...

Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the nation’s credit rating gives House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan every right to say “I told you so.” Even earlier this week when President Obama was taking his victory lap for the debt-ceiling compromise, Ryan was disclosing the cold, hard truths of the economic troubles that lie ahead — truths that a jittery Wall Street has been more than aware of. In an oped column in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, the Wisconsin Republican reiterated, of course, that the president really has no budget plan. “The president’s February budget,” he wrote, “deliberately dodged the tough...

Run, Ryan, RunThe Wisconsin congressman should make a presidential bid. For the past several weeks, America was gripped by the question of whether Congress and the president would raise the debt ceiling. That debate has made even clearer the importance of, and the answer to, another question: Who should challenge Barack Obama in 2012? The debate has highlighted how little the expected Republican presidential field has to offer in the important battles taking place in Washington. The GOP frontrunners didn’t provide any real leadership or even cogent advice from afar. They appeared at best uninvolved and at worst unserious. Quite...

The White House shot back Thursday at Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) claim that Republicans had called the president’s bluff in debt-ceiling negotiations. The administration issued a point-by-point rebuttal to Ryan’s op-ed yesterday in The Wall Street Journal, in which he characterized Republicans as having successfully stared down President Obama in the protracted fight over spending and the nation’s borrowing authority. Maybe the most bombastic claim Ryan made was that Republican leaders called Obama’s bluff by forcing him to accept legislation that included no revenue-raisers and raised the debt limit

Weekly Standard editor William Kristol still holds out hope that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will be on a national presidential ticket in 2012. "Ryan-Rubio or Rubio-Ryan would be a very strong ticket," Kristol said on "Fox News Sunday." "It should be Ryan-Rubio, but if Paul Ryan is a little hesitant to seize the moment, I think Marco Rubio will have to do it and make Paul Ryan his vice president" Any chance that happens, asked Fox host Bret Baier. "Yes," Kristol answered. "I think Republican primary voters would welcome a Ryan-Rubio ticket"

Democrats have controlled the Senate and the White House since the election of 2008, and the House of Representatives up until this year.  Certainly they could have passed any budget they desired, including one with tax increases and spending increases.  But they chose to ignore the 800-day gorilla in the room because they don't want to be on record supporting a budget that actually does what they want.  Then the public could hold them accountable for their cowardly and irresponsible behavior in the face of national fiscal calamity.  

The emerging Gang of Six budget deal riding a bipartisan wave of support in the Senate and getting a bear hug from the White House purports to cut deficits by $3.7 trillion while raising some $1 trillion in additional revenue through 2021. That doesn’t sound like fodder for a compromise with House Republicans, who have demanded that tax hikes be taken off the table. But, as always in Washington, the true impact of any budget deal depends on the baseline that is being used, so a closer look is in order.

Victory in the debt ceiling battle seems so simple to me. Can someone tell me where I'm wrong? Here's my idea: 1) Immediately draft a short, simple bill that states "In the event that the United States debt limit is reached, the treasury's first obligation is to use incoming revenue to pay our existing debt obligations." (That is, the interest on the existing debt.) Since it's a spending bill, it should be presented in the House. Since our continuous federal revenue greatly exceeds our interest obligations, a bill like this would ensure that we could not default. If it passes...

Pelosi’s PAYGO Ployby Robert Bluey Published on October 14, 2010 Four years after Democrats campaigned on the promise of using pay-as-you-go budgeting, their record is dismal. Since gaining control of Congress in 2007, they’ve gamed, ignored or employed PAYGO on 32 occasions to justify new spending or tax increases. Once hailed as a budgetary tool to stop deficit spending, PAYGO has become a gimmick House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has used repeatedly to provide cover to her liberal allies. “Democrats are committed to fiscal responsibility through pay-as-you-go budgets, so that our children and grandchildren are not saddled with mountains of...

So what are Republicans, particularly those in the House, going to do? Debt ceiling deadlines are fast approaching. And many in the GOP leadership, particularly in the Senate, think the party’s anti-tax resolve will dissolve if markets start to tumble... [Snip] It now looks like somewhat of a strategic error for Republicans to have pushed for so much in exchange for a hike in the debt limit. The Obama White House seems perfectly willing to take negotiations right up to — and past – the Aug. 2 deadline because it thinks it can win the political fight. [Snip] But perhaps...

FINE WINE, BEST ENJOYED AMONG FRIENDS AND DONORS?: Cliff Asness, the founding and managing partner of hedge fund AQR Capital, and Rutgers University professor Susan Feinberg may have irreconcilable differences about two $350 bottles of wine at Washington D.C.'s Bistro Bis, but they once found common ground in the campaign of President Barack Obama. Cliff Asness, and his wife Laurel, each gave Obama $2,300 during his 2008 campaign, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. Feinberg, too, was a 2008 Obama campaign donor, giving $1,700 in support of his presidential bid. Obama was just the second federal-level candidate...

This morning, the House Budget Committee invited Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to a hearing on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), the left’s weapon of choice for tackling Medicare’s $38 trillion in unfunded promises to America’s seniors. Both sides of the debate agree that extensive reductions to Medicare’s runaway spending are needed, and have even proposed comparable targets for growth in spending. The key difference, then lies in who makes the difficult decisions regarding seniors’ health care under the chosen direction for reform: Patients, or bureaucrats? Sec. Sebelius argued that IPAB, a board of unelected officials tasked...

Cheers. For some reason the libs weren’t so outraged when Obaama served $399 bottles of wine at his taxpayer-funded state dinner … … but Libs today were “stunned” and “outraged” that popular conservative Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ordered a $350 bottle of wine for dinner in New York. TPM reported, via Ann Althouse: When [Professor Feinberg] saw the label on the bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru Ryan’s table had ordered, she quickly looked it up on the wine list and saw that it sold for an eye-popping $350, the most expensive wine in the house along with one...

Driving to work this morning was a real treat. Most of my 30 minute commute was filled with one of our local talkers interviewing Congressman Ryan as he was headed to the airport to fly to Washington DC to do battle with Emperor Obama. In my opinion, Ryan matters as much, if not more than Boehner or Cantor in these negotiations. Ryan has the ear of the Tea Party Congressional Class of 2010, and they will follow his lead long before they go over a cliff with squishy Boehner. On the radio this morning, Ryan took Obama to school for...

There he goes again. Peter Wehner, that is. He is trawling again for right-wing “extremists” (I am now a recidivist offender) from his perch at Compassionate Conservative Headquarters, where GOP solipsists are determined not to be outbid by the Left when it comes to using your money to advertise their virtue — which is how you end up burdening an already tapped-out Medicare program with a prescription-drug entitlement that is underfunded by more than $5 trillion. From CCHQ, we learn that, when you really think about it, George W. Bush was way more conservative than that Reagan guy. In fact,...

Trump: GOP has a ‘death wish’ By Daniel Strauss - 06/09/11 04:19 PM ET Donald Trump on Thursday accused the Republican party of having a “death wish” because of Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed reforms to Medicare. Trump made the statement in a new video released Thursday in which the real estate mogul explained why he was not running for president. He mentioned Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget, which includes the Medicare proposal, as a reason. “It almost seems as though the Republicans have a death wish,” Trump said. “When they tamper with Medicare —which happens to be a good program, but there’s...

Democrats haven’t fielded a competitive opponent against Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan in years. But now, as they are trying to paint the rising GOP star as a bogeyman because of his plan to overhaul Medicare, an effort is being made by Democrats to run a serious challenger against him in 2012. Cue Rob Zerban, a Democrat Kenosha County Board supervisor running for the seat, who summed up his campaign message in Milwaukee this weekend: “My opponent not only endorses the plan to end Medicare. He wrote the plan.” In an attempt to alienate Paul from seniors, Zerban has launched a...

In his speech, Ryan considered the consequences of making the wrong choice in this regard. It is, he insisted, a matter of paramount importance. In The Weary Titan, Aaron Friedberg − one of the founders of the Hamilton Society − has shown us what happened when Britain made the wrong choice at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, Britain’s governing class took the view that it would be better to cede leadership of the Western world to the United States. Unfortunately, the United States was not yet ready to assume the burden of leadership. The result was...

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida’s crowded Republican Senate race has two types of major candidates: The three who support their party’s controversial Medicare revamp and Mike Haridopolos. Haridopolos, the Florida Senate’s president, said he can’t support the Republican plan because it doesn’t protect seniors enough and doesn’t cut enough of the deficit. In bucking his party’s plan, Haridopolos inevitably puts a target on his back in the Republican primary. But it also makes him stand out in a crowded field and could pay dividends in a general election matchup against Democrat Bill Nelson.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday met with Congressional Republicans to discuss the path forward in order to avoid default, and ultimately raise the debt ceiling. The meeting went as expected, with both sides basically blaming the other for the impasse. The most interesting exchange came when House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan said that leaders can either exacerbate the problem of demagoguery or tone it down. In his words, he thought they were having a year of cooperation with the White House and House Republicans able to work together on preventing the Bush tax cuts from expiring, and a budget...

There is a potential presidential candidate whom almost every Republican wants. This person would not only galvanize the GOP base, but attract large numbers of independents and centrists as well. He would smash President Obama in 2012 and probably win by a landslide. He is Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. More than Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich - or any other possible “first-tier” candidate - the House Budget Committee chairman would be the most formidable challenger. He is smart, articulate and principled. He has name recognition.

House Democrats can use the Medicare issue to their advantage even in districts without large senior populations, according to a top party strategist “I don’t think that you look at it just by age. This is a huge issue for females that deal with their parents’ and in-laws’ health issues. It also sends signals to people about Republican priorities,” said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. Democrats have been mulling over the 2012 map to find districts where they can replicate their messaging on Medicare in the wake of their victory in the special election in New York’s 26th district. The party’s...

Medicare Threatens to Derail Debt Ceiling, Budget Negotiations as Dems, GOP Dig InBy HUMA KHAN June 1, 2011 Medicare has quickly become the chief issue of contention in budget negotiations that could derail talks on raising the U.S. debt ceiling and send the country spiraling into default. Republicans charge that Democrats are simply demagoging the issue as a political ploy for the 2012 elections without proposing a concrete plan of their own. "I just said we got to take on this debt and if we demagogue each other at the leadership level then we're never going to take on our...

It’s not uncommon to hear liberals ridicule conservatives for wanting a Constitutional government by suggesting that they are seeking to return to a time when blacks were considered 3/5 of a person and that the Constitution is somehow permanently damaged because it did not outlaw slavery. (At the time of the Constitution’s ratification in 1789 slavery was still legal in the British and French Empires – although not in England and France themselves – Spain, Denmark & Norway as well as most of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.) This liberal narrative suggests that the Founding Fathers had the opportunity...