Tag: paul ryan

> 5. Obamacare: Many doctors oppose the Obamacare plan, and many have said they will stop taking Medicare patients. This ends Medicare as many people currently experience it. While Ryan’s proposals to fix the health behemoth also included cuts to Medicare, the money was to go to shoring up Medicare’s trust fund – not to finance Obamacare.

> Obamacare is fertile ground for Ryan. He can describe how the president’s health plan is helping stifle job creation, as businesses struggle against the law’s new regulations and higher taxes. He can cite the most recent NFIB survey of small business optimism, that has edged lower once again in the past month, and the decline in new-business start-ups. As much as the Obama administration has paid lip service to their enthusiasm for the private sector and for small firms in particular, their policies have buried the animal spirits of our entrepreneurs.

I really hope Congressman Ryan mops the floor with Vice President Biden.

Mr. Ponnuru is more optimistic than I am about the debate. I have a fear that it will be a fairly even contest and the media will spin that as “Ryan underperforms in the debate.”

> [T]oward the end of the speech, Ryan was gaining applause for the solutions he offered:“Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my Mom’s generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.”

What a surprise that this was not covered in all the news stories saying how Paul Ryan was “booed” for his talk about repealing Obamacare.

> Paul Ryan’s acceptance speech was a tour de force, and a clear success. One measure of that success is the intensity and emptiness of the attacks coming his way. The irony is that these attacks — intended to damage Ryan by undermining his credibility — are more likely to be seen by the electorate for what they really are: desperate and dishonest tactics from those willing to say and do anything to hang on to power.

We are moving to a place where people’s political leanings will determine their news sources. I am fine with more and more people being exposed to how slanted certain media outlets can be when reporting on conservatives. It will allow people to have clear choices when choosing their news outlets.

An excellent write-up from Avik Roy[^fn1] on Paul Ryan’s speech and its factual accuracy

[^fn1]: Excellent unless you want a biased, left-leaning version. For that, you will have to go one of the numerous other “fact checkers” that have provided that.

From Christian Schneider at National Review:

> Ryan can make the case to young people that they don’t have to wait in line to be successful. In tonight’s speech, young voters are going to be talked to like adults. They are going to be challenged to emerge from their ideologically safe college campuses and make the change they want for themselves and for the world around them. And they will be hearing it from someone who has written the blueprint for success.

That paragraph alone got me excited to hear Paul Ryan’s speech tonight.

> Amid all this arcana, we must not lose sight of two main functions of Ryanism, now the core of Republicanism after being endorsed by the GOP’s congressional caucus and presidential nominee. First, Ryanism reminds the American people that a long-term trend is not the same thing as a law of nature. That the welfare state always has grown does not mean it always must grow. Indeed, a well-designed and well-administered welfare state can, in a welcome sense, grow and shrink at the same time. Second, Ryanism challenges the Democrats to finally come clean, 80 years after launching the New Deal, about the cost and consequences of their ambitions.

Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan will have to figure out a way to communicate this over the shouting coming from the left. Congressman Ryan is said to be an excellent communicator and we are about to find out how good he is.

> Freedom is lost by degrees, and the deepest erosions usually take place during times of economic hardship, when those who favor expanding the sphere of government abuse a crisis to persuade free citizens that they should trade in a little of their liberty for empty promises of greater economic security.

> …

> We can strengthen our defense of liberty if we remember to keep in mind those who are struggling to make ends meet. What makes our Constitution such an extraordinary document is that, in making the United States the freest civilization in history, the Founders guaranteed that it would become the most prosperous as well. The American system of limited government, low taxes, sound money, and the rule of law *has done more to help the poor than any other economic system ever designed.*

> …

> If we succumb to this view that our problems are bigger than we are — if we surrender more control over our economy to the governing class — then life in America will become defined by a new kind of class warfare: A class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules, and preserve their place atop society at the expense of working Americans, entrepreneurs, and the small businesswoman who has the gall to take on the corporate chieftain.

> …

> By respecting the rule of law, reclaiming the prominence of our Constitution, and reforming our government, I have no doubt that we the people, working together, can help ensure that the next generation of citizens inherits a stronger, freer, more prosperous America, and a more perfect union.

Well said.

Probably not much:

> Over the last several months, roughly 43% of Americans report that they have never heard of Paul Ryan. In mid-July, 52% could not even make a guess as to whether Ryan was a member of the House, the Senate, was Secretary of State, or was a Governor (32% got it right). Republicans are more likely to know that Ryan was a member of the House—42% of Republicans knew this, compared to 29% of Democrats and 34% of independents.

This means it will be up to the Romney-Ryan ticket to define him before the media and the rest of the left do.