Paul Ryan's Cross to Bear: The House Budget Chairman Challenges The Religious Left

Wall St. J ^ | April 30, 2012 | WILLIAM MCGURN

[Steelfish]

April 30, 2012 McGurn: Paul Ryan's Cross to Bear The House Budget Chairman Challenges The Religious Left WILLIAM MCGURN

Paul Ryan shocked the gentle souls at Georgetown University when he traveled up to their campus last Thursday and said: "We believe that Social Security legislation, now billed as a great victory for the poor and for the worker, is a great defeat for Christianity. It is an acceptance of the idea of force and compulsion." The Wisconsin Republican went on to lament that "we in our generation have more and more come to consider the state as bountiful Uncle Sam," and that citizens justify what they get from the state by saying, "We got it coming to us."

Sure sounds like Mr. Ryan was channeling Ayn Rand.

Except for one thing. The words are not Mr. Ryan's. They come from a 1945 column by Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker, in which she complained about how state intervention limits personal freedom and responsibility. Day's skepticism about government was reflected in her nickname for it: "Holy Mother State."

How far we have traveled since then. As the protests surrounding Mr. Ryan's appearance confirm, the Catholic left long ago jettisoned any worries about the size or scope of government (except for national defense). So the Sermon on the Mount now becomes a call for a single-payer system of universal health insurance.

In this worldview, those who believe otherwise—i.e., those who argue that you best help the poor by breaking down barriers to ownership and opportunity—are not simply mistaken. They are selfish and uncaring. It's the same meme President Obama played to when he recently characterized the GOP's approach as "you're on your own economics."

Mr. Ryan believes otherwise. At Georgetown he delivered a spirited defense of his budget. He did.. .....

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FYI: There is no religious left.

[Incorrigible]

Dorothy Day! That’s awesome. Rep Ryan should have noted that when speaking at Georgetown. I did a report on Day when in college. I’ve long forgotten it but I think it might be worthwhile doing some additional analysis.