Paul Ryan: Only in Washington does more government spending = “investment”
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Tag Archives: Paul Ryan
Democrats Fiddle While America Burns
Social Security is broke. The CBO announced that this years deficit will be $1.5 trillion, a world record. The national debt is climbing over $14 trillion. As Paul Ryan said, the United States is reaching a “tipping point” from which it can never turn back.
How are the Democrats addressing these issues? By playing politics and avoiding the issues.
Social Security is in the red. All the money from the fictitious trust fund will be gone by the year 2037. In his roadmap to fiscal solvency, Rep. Paul Ryan lays out how to get the country out of the ditch. The roadmap is a thoughtful look at the problems confronting the country combined reasonable solutions.
When it was announced that Rep. Ryan would be delivering the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union, the Democrats immediately went into full fearmonger mode. The Hill reported:
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the master political strategist for Senate Democrats, wants to turn Ryan into a bogeyman that voters think about whenever they hear about a Republican proposal to cut federal spending.
Schumer’s Democratic colleagues have not wasted any time implementing his “bogeyman” tactics.
Rep. Anthony Weiner said “”[Obama] was then followed by a guy who was bumming us out, I felt like I just needed a drink when I was done with Paul Ryan.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky penned an article for the Huffington Post entitled “A frightening ‘roadmap’ for America in the Republican Rebuttal to the State of the Union.”Here are some choice excerpts:
I served with Rep. Ryan on the 18 member Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and learned firsthand from the personally congenial Ryan just how dark his vision of America’s future is for all but the super-rich.
…He laid it all out in a document he calls “A Roadmap for America’s Future.” In it was his simple plan for health care reform: destroy Medicare as we know it by giving seniors a fixed dollar voucher and sending them off to find an insurance company that will cover them. That’s after raising the age of Medicare eligibility. He also revives the discredited idea of privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age. Good luck, Grandma!
…The Republicans led by Ryan are determined to keep serving only their wealthy constituency and push the rest of America down a dangerous road that threatens what has long been a consensus vision of our country as the land of opportunity for all.
Not content with ratcheting up fear for the dastardly Paul Ryan in print, Schakowsky went on MSNBC to tell Americans how “afraid” she was.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said “It’s clear from the Republican Party’s selection of Paul Ryan to be spokesman and the decision to vote on giving him unfettered control on what to cut that [Republicans] are getting behind his plan, and that makes clear they’re coming after Social Security and Medicare.”
This is just a sampling. The country is on the brink of insolvency, and Democrats are demagoguing the issues. The country is broke. These problems cannot be kicked down the road any longer. Entitlement programs have to reformed.
However, recent history has shown us what the Democrats’ real priority is: in 2003, after a majority of Democrats in the Senate voted to go to war in Iraq, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), wrote a memo to his colleagues on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, urging them to use an Iraq War probe as a political event to do the maximum possible damage to President Bush’s reelection campaign. Senator Rockefeller valued the outcome of an election over the national security of his country.
With the Democrats’ record in mind, it is no surprise that they are eschewing the serious problems plaguing the nation in favor of short term political gains. Their lust for power knows no end.
Strictly Right Radio episode 80
Obama’s SOTU address, a hilarious new policy from the Canadian Liberal Party, a bit about gun control, and much more!
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Social Security is Broke
In his soporific State of Union address, President Obama refused to address any serious entitlement reforms. No talk of eliminating deficits can be serious if the fast growing segment of the budget, which already represents over half of the overall budget, entitlements, is not addressed.
Social Security is the entitlement most in need of immediate reconstruction. The program was created by Franklin Roosevelt in an effort to secure votes for the Democrats. Roosevelt believed that his party would be able to scare seniors by claiming that Republicans intended to cut their benefits. Roosevelt was right, and Democrats have run on that message for over eighty years.
However, reality is finally catching up with the government’s mandatory Ponzi scheme. The Associated Press reports:
The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that Social Security will pay out $45 billion more in benefits this year than it will collect in payroll taxes, further straining the nation’s finances. The deficits will continue until the Social Security trust funds are eventually drained, in about 2037.
First, there is no trust fund. In Helvering v. Davis, the Supreme Court affirmed that Social Security was constitutional because the funds were not specially earmarked. Therefore, Social Security taxes were, and still are, part of the government’s general revenue, like income tax receipts.
Second, take a look at the definition of a Ponzi scheme:
A form of fraud in which belief in the success of a nonexistent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors.
Social Security is the world’s largest Ponzi scheme. Future generations are treated as ‘investors,’ who are really just paying off older investors. Ponzi schemes fail when the schemer cannot find new investors. Social Secrity is in the red because the economy tanked and there is not enough new money coming in to pay old ‘investors.’
There are solutions to this problem. The most effective answer is to privatize Social Security. However, using the Roosevelt playbook, Democrats have demonized this option.
In reality, Social Security has been privatized in the United States before, and it works:
The original Social Security Act allowed for counties to opt out of the government program. Seeing the writing on the wall, Galveston County, Texas opted out of the program in 1981. Galveston voters passed the opt-out provision by a 3-1 margin. Their solution should be the model that Social Security is remodeled after.
The system goes as follows:
Our plan, put together by financial experts, was a “banking model” rather than an “investment model.” To eliminate the risks of the up-and-down stock market, workers’ contributions were put into conservative fixed-rate guaranteed annuities, rather than fluctuating stocks, bonds or mutual funds. Our results have been impressive: We’ve averaged an annual rate of return of about 6.5 percent over 24 years. And we’ve provided substantially better benefits in all three Social Security categories: retirement, survivorship and disability.
The results:
Upon retirement after 30 years, and assuming a 5 percent rate of return – more conservative than
Galveston workers have earned – all workers would do better for the same contribution as Social Security:
- Workers making $17,000 a year are expected to receive about 50 percent more per month on our alternative plan than on Social Security – $1,036 instead of $683. [See the Figure.]
- Workers making $26,000 a year will make almost double Social Security’s return – $1,500 instead of $853.
- Workers making $51,000 a year will get $3,103 instead of $1,368.
- Workers making $75,000 or more will nearly triple Social Security – $4,540 instead of $1,645.
- Galveston County’s survivorship benefits pay four times a worker’s annual salary – a minimum of $75,000 to a maximum $215,000 – versus Social Security, which forces widows to wait until age 60 to qualify for benefits, or provides 75 percent of a worker’s salary for school-age children.
In Galveston, if the worker dies before retirement, the survivors receive not only the full survivorship but get generous accidental death benefits, too. Galveston County’s disability benefit also pays more: 60 percent of an individual’s salary, better than Social Security’s.
Two government studies of the Galveston Plan – by the Government Accountability Office and the Social Security Administration – claim that low-wage workers do better under Social Security. However, these studies assumed a low 4 percent return, which is the minimum rate of return on annuities guaranteed by the insurance companies. The actual returns have been substantially higher.
Even in 2010, after the stock-market meltdown of 2008, the Galveston plan is light years ahead of Social Security.
With this record of success, the government did the only logical thing. In 1983 Congress passed a law making it illegal to opt-out of Social Security. Instead, Democrats offer serious solutions, like Rep. Anthony Weiner, who said, “[Obama] was then followed by a guy who was bumming us out, I felt like I just needed a drink when I was done with Paul Ryan,” of Rep. Ryan’s response to the State of the Union.
Democrats have demagogued entitlement reform for two generations. The Left builds scores of dependent constituency groups, then accuses conservatives proposing “reckless budget cuts.” The underlying belief supporting this tactic is that the Left can turn artificial groups of citizens against each other, with over half of the electorate on the receiving end of government largess. Driven by a lust for power, Democrats have erected a monstrous federal state that is simply unsustainable. As Paul Ryan said last night the United States is at a “tipping point,” from which there can be no turning back.
Paul Ryan’s Awesome Response
Rep. Paul Ryan Gives Republican Response to the State of the Union Address:
Not the best move for Rep. Bachmann
As many of you know by now, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann — a leader in the Tea Party movement — is planning her own Tea Party Express-sponsored response to Obama’s upcoming State of the Union Address at the same time as Congressman Paul Ryan’s official Republican Response. This will be the first State of the Union with the new Republican Majority in the House, and it’s the best time for the GOP to establish themselves as a conservative Majority, if that’s the direction they are planning on heading. If so, Paul Ryan is a great choice to deliver the response. This is the guy who plotted out the American Roadmap, one of the most common-sense set of policies seen in government in quite a while.
Despite Ryan’s common-sense approach to governance (which, obviously, is somewhat comforting given his position as budget chairman) Bachmann and the Tea Party Express are still trying to steal the show and stand apart from the Republican Party. Like many conservatives, I have some concerns with the direction Speaker John Boehner et al may take the party, but allowing Paul Ryan to deliver the speech gives conservatives — you know, the Americans who matter — the chance to hear what the GOP wants for the country and hold them to account later. Perhaps it’s somewhat idealistic, but I’m in the “give the party a chance” camp for now.
Like most people, I’ll be keeping Fox News on to watch the official response, not partaking in the soon-to-be-failed attempt by the Tea Party Express to replace said response. Don’t expect any servers to be crashing on their website.
In related news:
If the GOP does have a Michele Bachmann problem, it’s an issue it may have to face in the lead up to 2012. Bachmann recently traveled to Iowa for a fundraiser. When asked several weeks ago if she was considering a presidential run, she said, “I’m going to Iowa—there’s your answer.”
Strictly Right Radio episode 78
On this Strictly Right, Ari takes a look at the role of government, the Repeal of Obamacare, a Mike Pence presidential run, the hoax of global warming and more.
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Paul Ryan Tells the Truth About Obamacare
Rep. Paul Ryan is a full-fledged star in the GOP. As one of the so-called ‘young guns‘ in the party, he has made a name for himself as a champion of individual liberty. Through his Road Map, Paul Ryan has put together a well though out plan to lead the United States back to fiscal sanity.
In the following video, Ryan examines the absurd claim that Obamacare will save the country money, and begins the case to repeal the Left’s monstrosity:
2011 GOP Battle Cry: Undo Obama
The media is atwitter over the fact that incoming GOP Congressmen have selected Carrie Underwood’s hit “Undo It” as their anthem.
Liberals in Congress and the media are worried that the GOP actually plans on fighting the Democrat socialist agenda.
Jennifer Steinhauer and Robert Pear lamented in the New York Times:
The health care law, entitlement programs, new limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from oil refineries and power plants, and other legislation that Republicans say cannot be justified by a strict interpretation of the Constitution — a document the new leaders plan to read on the House floor on Thursday — are all in the cross hairs.
While President Obama and Republicans were able to work together during last month’s lame-duck session — to the vocal consternation of the most partisan ends of each party’s base — to pass a tax package and a variety of last-minute legislation, including the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the ratification of the anti-nuclear proliferation treaty with Russia, such bipartisan consensus seems unlikely at the outset of the new House session.
Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, who is in line to succeed Ms. Pelosi, has said that this time around he would lead efforts to revive the private sector by reducing the size of government — cutting federal regulation, taxes and spending, including the budget of Congress itself.
Mr. Boehner also said Republicans would alter House rules to make it easier to curb government spending and to require more public disclosure about the work of the House.
House Republicans plan on passing a full repeal of Obamacare as a symbolic act, acknowledging that it will be stopped in the Senate, or vetoed by the President. However, after setting the tone, the GOP plans on defunding and dismantling Obamacare piece by piece. Additionally, with Paul Ryan’s Road Map the GOP is finally starting to talk about realistic entitlement reforms.
Fueled by a reverence for the Constitution and an acknowledgment of reality, Republicans won in 2010 by representing the alternative to Obamunism. If the Grand Old Party wishes to remain in power surrender is not an option.
Mitch McConnell stated that his foremost political priority is ensuring that Barack Obama is a one-term president. Republicans are openly stating that they plan on using Obamacare as an albatross to hang around Democrats in 2012. The only way to fix the economy, and the country, is to get government out of the way. The only way to get government out of the way is to defeat Democrats. The GOP, at long last, is ready to play hardball.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats believe that a renewed debate over Obamacare will actually help them. The Left believes that the only problem with Obama’s government takeover of healthcare is the branding. If only the American people really understood how great Obamacare is, they’d support the monstrosity.The fights over Obamacare, and liberty, are fights the GOP should welcome, and decisively win.
The legislative plan for the GOP is quite simple; Barry Goldwater spelled it out in 1960:
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is `needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.
For a modern interpretation “Undo It” works:
Review of "Young Guns: a New generation of Conservative Leaders"
Two years ago it was said that the elections of Barack Obama to the presidency, an overwhelming Democratic majority in the House and 60 Democrats in the Senate signaled the death of conservatism. At this writing, November 2nd is less than 50 days away. Real Clear Politics’ polling averages has the GOP picking up at least 7 seats in the Senate, leading by 5% on the House generic ballot, Republicans picking up a minimum 7 Governorships, and Republicans controlling of 31 state Houses by November 3rd. This rapid sea change raises two questions: why did this happen? What will the new GOP majority look like?
Those two quandaries are answered by Representatives Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy in their great new book Young Guns: a New Generation of Conservative Leaders. The book is divided into three sections, authored by the aforementioned Congressmen. Cantor, the second highest ranking Republican in the House, broadly outlines the political environment that led to his party’s decline and swift resurgence. Cantor also expounds upon the general direction the party will head in, should they take the majority this fall. Representative Ryan tackles the nuts and bolts of Republican domestic policy. The third and final section of the book is written by Representative Kevin McCarthy, Cantor’s deputy Whip. McCarthy’s section focuses on how 2010 candidates were recruited, and what they will do to connect with voters this election cycle. Young Guns sets forth the pro-freedom agenda that the GOP will use this election cycle, and govern by once in power.
America rests in the hands of a Democratic majority that views America differently… they focus on its flaws rather than it greatness…They think America is an ordinary nation, not an exceptional nation.
Eric Cantor begins the book by telling the sad story of the GOP in the waning days of its last majority in 2006. While we are all familiar with this narrative, it is important for elected Republicans to understand what voters mean when they say the GOP ‘lost its way.’ It is one thing to acknowledge a popular catchphrase, it is another to truly comprehend it. If the GOP hopes to not just win a majority in 2010, but to retain it in the future, it must correct the mistakes that have damaged the conservative brand. The Republican Party is not spared in Cantor’s honest analysis. He laments that Republicans did in fact lose their way. At some point the party stopped being the party of limited government and became the party of government. Honest men and women forgot that they were elected to change Washington. Instead, Republicans focused on reelection bids and constructing a political machine akin to that of the former Democrat majorities. With that lesson understood, Cantor moves forward in offering the message of the newly revitalized GOP.
When President Obama was elected in 2008, along with his Democratic counterparts in both Houses of Congress, his party promised honesty and transparency. Obama repeatedly promised to be a ‘post-partisan’ President, who would reach across the aisle to adopt the best ideas put forward. While astute observes noted that President Obama was rated the most liberal of all 100 Senators by the non-partisan National Journal, many held out faith, hoping Obama would live up to his campaign promises. This matter was immediately put to the test. With the economy in a tailspin, the new administration claimed their first priority was calming the economic storm. President Obama made it known that he was in favor of a government spending program that would allegedly stimulate the economy. The price tag of his $787,000,000,000 stimulus bill was unsettling to many on both sides of the partisan divide. With a true bipartisan spirit, the Republican minority put together an alternative stimulus bill. The bill was not doctrinaire conservatism, but rather an attempt to find common ground with the new President. The bill recommended:
- Reducing the lowest individual tax rates from 15% to 10% and eventually down to 5%
- Allowing small businesses to reduce tax liability by 20%
- Ensuring no tax increases to pay for spending
- Assistance for the unemployed
- A home buyers credit of $7.500 for those buyers who can make a minimum down payment of 5%
It was determined that this bill would create twice as many jobs as Obama claimed his stimulus bill would at half the cost – using the the Obama administrations own economic modeling. Obama’s eventual response to GOP alternatives? “Elections have consequences… and Eric, I won.” From then on it was clear that the the new President had no intention of pursuing a non-partisan agenda. Obama, Pelosi and Reid routinely shut the GOP out of any and all policy making decisions. The GOP was painted as the part of ‘no,’ but that was a more fitting name for the Democrats. They were, and still remain, the party of ‘no.’ They have said ‘no’ to any and all new ideas that might deviate from strict adherence to their failed ideology.
Paul, Kevin and I are unapologetic believers in the concept of American exceptionalism. America offers opportunity like no other nation, and with hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance, no one is limited.
If Cantor disputes the party of ‘no’ label, Representative Ryan blows it out of the water. While Representatives Cantor and McCarthy hold leadership roles in the party, Paul Ryan is recognized as one of the great thinkers of the conservative movement. His section of the book explains the crossroads his country is at. According to Ryan, America has to make a choice: to pursue the dream of the Founders: limited government, liberty and a prosperous future, or that of Western Europe: gradual decline, substantial tax increases, and an enormous federal leviathan.
Ryan explains that his road map will allow Americans to have a social safety net, remain solvent and ensure the preservation of individual liberty. Ryan tackles: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and health care. Drawing on his experience, which included working for Jack Kemp, Ryan has constructed a pro-freedom agenda for the GOP that leaves no stone unturned. Foremost in his reforms is an area that has been seen as a political third-rail for Republicans in the past: entitlements. However, Ryan’s sober analysis and sensible solutions show that the GOP is willing to tackle the most important issues facing the nation.
Unlike some in Washington today, I don’t have any doubt about the moral strength of America…We’re the good guys.
The final section of the book by Kevin McCarthy explains how the GOP, and especially the Young Guns have been recruiting candidates. Representative McCarthy details how the GOP is not just looking to create a Republican majority, they are trying to create a conservative majority. A majority of what I have called ‘citizen legislators.’ Rather than recruiting typical pols to run for office, McCarthy and the rest of the GOP have been looking for people who ‘get it.’ The GOP brand was damaged by a decade long spending binge. Prospective candidates must understand that being elected to Congress is about something bigger than themselves; it is about “changing America.” In making this point, McCarthy recalls a conversation he had with an aspiring candidate:
McCarthy: Are you going to run?
Candidate: Do you need me to run?
McCarthy: No, I don’t need you to run.
Candidate: Do you want me to run?
McCarthy: No, I don’t want you to run. I’ll help you if you want to run.
McCarthy eventually advised this candidate not to run, telling him “this can’t be about you. This is about changing America.” The section goes on to profile a number of the Young Guns running this year. These candidates do ‘get it.’ They are running to change Washington, not to become political hacks.
Young Guns provides more than a road map to Republican victory in 2010. It offers the basis under which a conservative coalition will govern once in power. If the principles outlined in this work are adhered to by a new class of Republicans, the party will unite the center-right, that makes up the majority of the United States, achieve electoral successes, and more importantly, implement the solutions that will put America back on track. In 1976 Ronald Reagan said:
This is our challenge; and this is why here in this hall tonight, better than we have ever done before, we have got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we have ever been, but we carry the message they are waiting for.
We must go forth from here united, determined that what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory.
Republicans once again are in the political wilderness. However, conservatives again carry the message the country is waiting for. Young Guns makes it clear that the GOP will trumpet this message, and lends hope that once in the majority again, Republicans will govern appropriately.
Click here to purchase a copy of Young Guns: a New generation of Conservative Leaders.