But are Ryan's ideas any good for the public good?
The Chicago Tribune, clarion voice of the Midwest, calls Paul Ryan, R-WI, leading candidate for speaker of the House of Representatives, a man of ideas. To be exact, the Tribune's editorial board quotes Mitt Romney, whose running mate Ryan was in the presidential election of 2012, "he is a man of ideas who is driven to see them applied for the public good."
But what are the quality of Ryan's ideas? Since they focus on the federal budget, we consulted Dean Baker, an economist, on the subject. We've listened carefully to Baker ever since he drew our attention to the complete instability of the housing boom and its dangers as early as 2004.
Ryan may not be as dumb as McCarthy but he might be even narrower, more ambitious and ruthlessly destructive of democracy as Gingrich, another so-called "man of ideas," a college professor who hated government and had never had a job in the private sector in his life. Ryan may not have worked in the private sector beyond summer jobs when he was in college. Of course that doesn't count his great political work on behalf of corporations and the wealthy few while in office. -- blj
10-23-15
Chicago Tribune
Editorial
Paul Ryan, a speaker of ideas
Editorial Board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-speaker-paul-ry...
Paul Ryan will be a different kind of House leader.
John Boehner is cigarettes and golf; Paul Ryan is the P90X workout and bowhunting. Boehner is 65; Ryan is 45. Boehner is stepping down as speaker of the House, and it looks as though Ryan soon will be stepping up. If Ryan has his way, he won't be just a different speaker; he'll be a different kind of speaker.
House members typically climb the ladder to leadership posts by learning how to cut deals, raise money, forge relationships and avoid risks. Boehner's skills in those areas gained him the top job, but he found it to be less a matter of leading troops than herding cats. "Garbage men get used to the smell of bad garbage," he said a few weeks ago, explaining how he endured the incessant aggravations. But then he made his break.
Ryan hopes to avoid the snares that caught Boehner, who faced the constant threat of being toppled by Republican members averse to compromise. The rangy Wisconsinite didn't want the job, and he had to be persuaded to run. By forcing the conservative Freedom Caucus to support him without apparent concessions on his part, he starts from a position of enviable strength. Maybe the cats will become a bit more cooperative.
The biggest difference is that Ryan made his name not as a political operator but as a political thinker. He says he wants the GOP to go "from being an opposition party to being a proposition party," and if anyone is equipped to lead that change, it's Ryan. Mitt Romney, who picked him as his running mate in 2012, said recently that "he is a man of ideas who is driven to see them applied for the public good."
Ryan has been an able exponent of conservative themes on a range of issues. But his biggest contribution has been on the greatest challenge facing Congress and the country: the steadily building fiscal crisis. Washington has saddled taxpayers with trillions in future obligations, which grow every day, and Ryan understands that this approach is unsustainable as well as unconscionable.
In 2011, as chairman of the budget committee, he produced a blueprint to cut spending by $6.2 trillion over the coming decade, compared to the administration's plan. Ryan's proposal addressed burgeoning entitlements by revamping future Medicare benefits for those now younger than 55 and converting federal Medicaid outlays to block grants, allowing states more options in delivering health care to the poor.
The plan, called "The Path to Prosperity," identified reality in stark terms: "Absent action, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will soon grow to consume every dollar of revenue that the government raises in taxes." At that unhappy stage, the only options would be brutal cuts in benefits or huge increases in taxes — or a massive federal default.
Any of those would be disastrous. So it's essential that Congress and the president take measured steps as soon as possible to put the government on a sustainable fiscal path. More than most elected officials in Washington, Ryan understands the composition of the challenge — and the urgency of addressing it. He may not have the ideal answers. But he's asking the right questions and offering responsible remedies.
Whether he can turn the speaker's chair into a vehicle for policy leadership is hardly certain. It's a job that is necessarily occupied with the day-to-day business of the House and the many needs of members. Recent occupants, it's fair to say, will not be remembered for their innovative thinking about grand policy.
We hope Ryan will be different. Even those who question his remedies have to acknowledge that the problems are real and in need of prompt attention. If he can push Congress and the White House to get serious about fixing them, he'll be recognized as a success — not just by those of us here today, but by future generations.
10-21-15
The Center for Economic and Policy Research
Paul Ryan Wants to Shut Down the Government, Permanently
Dean Baker
http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/paul-ryan-wants-to-shut-down-th...
Everyone has seen the news stories about how Representative Paul Ryan, the leading candidate to be the next Speaker of the House, is a budget wonk. That should make everyone feel good, since we would all like to think a person in this position understands the ins and outs of the federal budget. But instead of telling us about how much Ryan knows about the budget (an issue on which reporters actually don't have insight), how about telling us what Ryan says about the budget?
It is possible to say things about what Ryan says, since he has said a lot on this topic and some of it is very clear. In addition to wanting to privatize both Social Security and Medicare, Ryan has indicated that he essentially wants to shut down the federal government in the sense of taking away all of the money for the non-military portion of the budget.
This fact is one that is easy to find if a reporter is willing to do five minutes of research. Ryan directed the Congressional Budget Office to score his budget plans back in 2012. The score of his plan showed the non-Social Security, non-Medicare portion of the federal budget shrinking to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2050 (page 16).
This number is roughly equal to current spending on the military. Ryan has indicated that he does not want to see the military budget cut to any substantial degree. That leaves no money for the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, The Justice Department, infrastructure spending or anything else. Following Ryan's plan, in 35 years we would have nothing left over after paying for the military.
Just to be clear, this was not some offhanded gaffe where Ryan might have misspoke. He supervised the CBO analysis. CBO doesn't write-down numbers in a dark corner and then throw them up on their website to embarrass powerful members of Congress. As the document makes clear, they consulted with Ryan in writing the analysis to make sure that they were accurately capturing his program.
So what percent of people in this country know that the next Speaker of the House would like to permanently shut down most of the government? What percent even of elite educated policy types even know this fact? My guess is almost no one, we just know he is a policy wonk.
Paul Ryan Wants to Shut Down the Government, Permanently
Published: 21 October 2015
Everyone has seen the news stories about how Representative Paul Ryan, the leading candidate to be the next Speaker of the House, is a budget wonk. That should make everyone feel good, since we would all like to think a person in this position understands the ins and outs of the federal budget. But instead of telling us about how much Ryan knows about the budget (an issue on which reporters actually don't have insight), how about telling us what Ryan says about the budget?
It is possible to say things about what Ryan says, since he has said a lot on this topic and some of it is very clear. In addition to wanting to privatize both Social Security and Medicare, Ryan has indicated that he essentially wants to shut down the federal government in the sense of taking away all of the money for the non-military portion of the budget.
This fact is one that is easy to find if a reporter is willing to do five minutes of research. Ryan directed the Congressional Budget Office to score his budget plans back in 2012. The score of his plan showed the non-Social Security, non-Medicare portion of the federal budget shrinking to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2050 (page 16).
This number is roughly equal to current spending on the military. Ryan has indicated that he does not want to see the military budget cut to any substantial degree. That leaves no money for the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, The Justice Department, infrastructure spending or anything else. Following Ryan's plan, in 35 years we would have nothing left over after paying for the military.
Just to be clear, this was not some offhanded gaffe where Ryan might have misspoke. He supervised the CBO analysis. CBO doesn't write-down numbers in a dark corner and then throw them up on their website to embarrass powerful members of Congress. As the document makes clear, they consulted with Ryan in writing the analysis to make sure that they were accurately capturing his program.
So what percent of people in this country know that the next Speaker of the House would like to permanently shut down most of the government? What percent even of elite educated policy types even know this fact? My guess is almost no one, we just know he is a policy wonk.