Ryan is Romney's choice for his 2012 running mate.
Just over two weeks ago Republican Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, selected, Representative Paul Ryan, from Wisconsin's 1st District to be his Vice President.
The selection was a surprise to many on both the right and the left. Most had narrowed the field down to Senator Rob Portman or the ex-Governor from Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty.
Was the professed deficit hawk a good choice?
Feelings within the Republican Party are mixed, and for good reason.
The selection of Paul Ryan is a gift to the Democrats. His widely criticized budget is only one of a multitude of issues that can be used against the Romney ticket as a result of this extraordinary selection.
Entitled "The Path to Prosperity" this new iteration is merely a modified version of his previous attempt -- it's version 2.0.
Ryan's newest budget's modifications are potentially more destructive to the middle and lower classes, more generous to the rich, and still attempts to voucherize -- privatize -- Medicare.
This version comes with greater vocal outpouring of the Congressman's courage; his courageous attempt to curtail government excesses -- his agonized cry for austerity.
Is it really courage or demagoguery?
It is far more valiant to stand against those threatening to oppress than it is to take from those most vulnerable as Ryan's budget does.
Representative Ryan's budget, his newest shell game, is still an attempt to transfer wealth to his contributers by taking it from the safety net and low income families in the form of food stamps, Medicaid, educational assistance, and veterans benefits.
One only has to look at his new version to see that he still feels that squeezing more blood from the poor and vulnerable is good policy.
Evidently, Representative Ryan has been in Washington too long and hasn't gotten the word that austerity is not working -- not in Europe, and not here.
But what's most disturbing about the Ryan Budget, and Ryan himself, are the lies, both in the document and in the selling of the plan and the candidate.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has shown a proclivity to lie, to hide, and to deceive during the entire campaign which makes Ryan his perfect choice.
Lying, to the Republican party, has become the norm rather than the exception.
And Ryan's whole persona has become a lie; a vacillation of positions even to the point of contradicting his own record.
He's a political con man. Snake oil salesman. A charlatan of the worst kind. A self-contradicting pol apparently unaware that there are substantial video and audio records of his positions. His votes, his statements, and his lies are all meant to divert the voter's attention from his fiscal irresponsibility.
Most interesting, and something Democrats will be able to exploit, is his claim to be a deficit hawk and a budget wonk.
Records show clearly that his votes led to the tremendous deficit he now wants to combat. Don Quixote battling the windmills which, ironically, he helped construct. A deficit he alleges is stifling our economic growth and was caused by the Obama administration, when, in fact, he and his right-wing colleagues exploded the deficit.
What has Representative Ryan, the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, done that could be turned on him between now and the election?
As a young Congressman he voted for the Gramm/Leach/Bliley Bill which caused the banking crisis then, not only voted for TARP to prevent the global banking meltdown, but gave an impassioned speech urging his colleagues to vote for it also or face an unprecedented catastrophe.
Other bad votes included two unfunded wars that added tremendous debt to our already increasing burden. And the two Bush tax cuts during a time of war -- something that had never been done in our entire history. Medicare Part D, yet another unfunded Ryan vote, added billions to our burgeoning and out-of-control deficit. His votes have added nearly $7 trillion to our nation's credit card.
He denounces stimulus, though he asked for stimulus for his district. He also made a passionate case for the Bush stimulus to help stimulate a declining economy at the precipice in 2002.
At campaign stops Ryan claims he and Romney will transform the government -- the one he is a willing participant in; fix the deficit -- the one his votes caused; and reform Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, 'the entitlements' -- which he had a decade to reform and did nothing!
If Ryan was selected to legitimize Romney then they made a mistake. If he was selected to deflect the criticisms of Romney's ever-changing policies and positions they made a disastrous miscalculation.
Ryan's a lightning rod for the Romney/Ryan campaign and his inadequacies and vacillations will be exposed and exploited.
He is a gift to the Democrats.