paul ryan

Paul Ryan agrees with Rick Perry: Social Security is a Ponzi scheme

September 21, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Maybe Paul Ryan really does want to be the vice presidential candidate.  What else explains this lunacy?

On Laura Ingraham’s radio show, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) agreed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) that Social Security resembles a Ponzi scheme. “It’s not a criminal enterprise, but it is a pay as you go system where earlier investors, or say taxpayers, get a positive rate of return and the most recent investors, or taxpayers, get a negative rate of return,” said Ryan. “That’s how those schemes work." -- Washington Post.

More, including reaction from Wisconsin Dems, on The Paul Ryan Watch.

The Scott Walker-Paul Ryan-Rick Perry tax-cut mania, destroyed in two paragraphs

September 20, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

GranholmFormer Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm puts the lie to the current Republican mantra that tax cuts and smaller government will boost the economy. Granholm, a Democrat, faced an economic crisis in Michigan that at one point in the Great Recession pushed official unemployment to 20 percent.She explained to Salon.com's Andrew Leonard why Michigan's experiment with tax cuts and smaller government was a resounding failure. In her new book on fixing the economy:

Paul Ryan, just a regular millionaire, up to his elbows in deer guts

September 20, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Paul Ryan may not be running for president this time around, but if you have any doubt about his ambitions for a long, prominent future in government, just look at his comments in a Q. and A. published in Sunday’s Times. They’re a minor masterpiece of image calibration.

In the span of two dozen sentences, Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, mentioned the Bible... his truck and his appetite for hard rock ... hunting — with a bow, no less... Then came the capper. “I butcher my own deer, grind the meat, stuff it in casings and then smoke it,” he said, making clear that Sarah Palin in all her moose-eviscerating glory has nothing on him.

New study: Plutocrats like Paul Ryan often vote for the agenda of the wealthy

September 20, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Air campaignThe Center for Responsive Politics says the average US senator has a $13 million personal fortune. Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives average close to $5 million -- and here in Wisconsin, GOP Rep. Paul (Taxing The Rich is Class Warfare) Ryan is among the millionaires. Does that wealth matter when it comes to how these legislators vote? Short answer, which won't surprise progressives one bit: Yes, and a lot. Rich legislators tend to vote for measures that benefit rich Americans.

Duke University political scientist Nicholas Carnes put the issue to statistical analysis in a study matching members of Congress, their class backgrounds, and their votes in the near-century between 1901 and 1996.