Paul Ryan's Debt Talk Contradicts His Entire Career

Paul Ryan gives the first major national address of his career at the RNC on Wednesday night, and he will have to do more than "introduce" himself. He needs to rebrand himself.

That's because Ryan's new role contradicts his entire government career.

While many focus on Ryan's budget plan -- whether it's bold or cruel, realistic or fantastic, precise or vague -- the most important thing is that it is just a plan. A promise. An idea. It is not a record.

Ryan's rebranding can only succeed if we all focus on his proposals. Not what he actually did.

A look at the record shows this race is not about deficit-hawks, it's about deficit-chutzpah.

During 14 years in Congress, Ryan consistently and loyally voted to increase the debt:

He did not take political risks or buck his party to combat "our exploding deficits."

He voted for 65 different pieces of legislation to expand the debt.

He requested earmarks.

This is not arcane "history," either. It's a record of creating the current problem that Ryan now touts as his guiding purpose to solve. In fact, the majority of today's deficit is comprised of congressional spending decisions made during the last administration, which Ryan supported.

The Bush-era spending spree turned a surplus into more than $6 trillion in debt. And Ryan, the GOP's budget guru and intellectual inspiration, backed those deficit increases a remarkable 90 percent of the time.

He also supported each of largest specific drivers of today's debt: defense spending, tax cuts and Medicare Part D. (Harsha Nahata, a writer at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, crunched these numbers from Congress' own budget office.)

So Ryan literally spent his government career increasing the budget deficit. In a twist on the old Gandhi maxim, he is the problem that he pledges to solve.

And that does not make Ryan unusual, either -- it's just part of the GOP's cyclical deficit outrage ritual, a dynamic I explore in this article.

--
Ari Melber is an attorney and contributor to Politico. The original version of this article is available here.

 

 

 

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Comments

[Jen Celli]

05:11 PM on 08/29/2012

Rather than having an elephant for their standard, they ought to change it; the GOP is the party of the two-headed snake.

[ez14livin]

03:07 PM on 08/29/2012

ryan will regale us with tales of his "loyalty"

"i follow orders, so even if i don't believe a thing romney has to say, i follow orders"

[Phillip Horton]

01:06 PM on 08/29/2012

Right, like a young freshman rep is going to change how Washington does business overnight. What he was able to do however was develop a change in the mentality in Washington to save our economy. All you have to do now Ari, is climb aboard the momentum that he has created.

[ckdogs]

10:13 AM on 08/29/2012

It's like Christie saying that Romney is a teller of hard truths and Ann saying that she guarantees that Mitt will not fail. If anyone believes that - I'd like to see you a bridge. I'm beginning to think that this country has become as tribal as Afghanistan. We don't care about facts or truth - only about which side you're on.

[stopdrinkingthekoolaid1]

11:11 AM on 08/29/2012

One truth we know for sure - the current administration has spent money like a drunken millionaire. Worse, it's not "their" money so they feel free to keep spending it. And what are they spending it on? Are they creating new jobs in the economy? No, they're only giving states money to keep their union workers employed. And they're trying to pick winners and losers, e.g. GM, Solyndra, etc. They don't understand economics, where if there is a better idea or a better product, market forces will allow it to succeed. And if there is a bad idea or a stale product, market forces will remove it from the market. How can anyone approve of the government just throwing money at people and special interests (money we don't have), to buy votes?

[Patricia013]

12:50 PM on 08/29/2012

LMAO - how did the "current administration" spend so much money? Congress holds the purse strings and nothing can get by the House. Don't you read? Get rid of the obstructionist teapublican congress before they bring this country down entirely!

[ckdogs]

01:04 PM on 08/29/2012

What are they spending money on? They spent money to save all the banks from failing and having all of our savings wiped out. They spent money to save the entire US auto industry; they spent money on unemployment so people could eat when they lost jobs due to the Bush recession. We tried it Bush's way and it didn't work. As for special interests - what about the tax shelters and corporate welfare championed by the Republicans? Doesn't sound like a free market to me when gas and oil co's get huge subsidies.

[fairwitness]

09:31 AM on 08/29/2012

And that's the single biggest cause for despair: the GOP can now lie about obvious facts, tell stories that are demonstrably false, and accuse the opposition of the crimes they themselves are undeniably perpetrating in clear view of everyone and not only get away with it, they are rewarded and worshiped by (at least) 47% of the electorate. And, in fear of losing their own personal power and position, the press is absolutely complicit in the lies, deceptions and crimes,

This is a spiritually sick culture in need of lessons about the catastrophes that befall societies which abhor the human values of Truth and Compassion--it is depressing in the extreme to realize that we may very well receive those lessons at the hands of Romney & Ryan and the tribe of sociopaths they lead.

[Patricia013]

12:53 PM on 08/29/2012

F&F right on!

[grittyreboot]

01:48 PM on 08/29/2012

I blame it on conservative false christians and their twisted morality.