Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« St. Louis Police Shoot and Kill an Erratically-Acting Knife-Wielding Man | Main | American Photojournalist James Foley, Kidnapped Thanksgiving 2012 in Syria, Now Beheaded by IS in a Video Warning to America »
August 19, 2014

Paul Ryan's New Book Expresses Frustrations With Republican Party, and Tea Party

A bit of policy critique, and a bit of political positioning, to be sure.

...Ryan singles out the government shutdown in the fall of 2013....

Ryan tried to sway fellow conservatives to drop demands that would prompt a shutdown. "It was a suicide mission," Ryan writes, but one that many members were unwilling to write off for fear outside tea party groups would deem them squishy.

In a separate, earlier episode, Ryan says he joined a 2001 meeting with then-Vice President Dick Cheney to talk about what the new Bush administration should prioritize. Ryan said he made a two-minute case for Social Security reform, saying that a budget surplus had created a huge opportunity.

Cheney, as Ryan tells it, dismissed that idea as though it was an annoying mosquito, not a policy option.

He also questions his own rhetoric:

Ryan recounts being confronted at a county fair by a Democrat who objected to his frequent talk of "the makers" and "the takers," or the divide between those who pay more taxes than the ones who receive government benefits such as unemployment insurance, Social Security and Medicare. Ryan now realizes that during that confrontation, he had been insulting voters without realizing it.

That seems less like opinion and more like fact -- while Romney's "47%" remark was the truly damaging one, the entire line of argument has been reckoned by most to have been politically damaging.

The reason for this is simple: A lot of less-wealthy people vote GOP for various reasons. A lot of these less-wealthy people do in fact receive more from the government in either direct cash payments or general government services (i.e., lower property values mean less money goes to their local schools, made up for by people who are, relatively speaking, overpaying for local schools), and it is, I imagine, pretty insulting to the working-but-not-wealthy to suggest, even accidentally, that they're freeloaders.

To some extent, the claim might even have some element of truth in it -- i.e., those paying less in taxes than they receive in total services are, in fact, being subsidized to some extent by wealthier taxpayers.

But it's a tiny element of truth wrapped around a pretty harsh insult.

No one who busts his ass every day at a job wants to be told he's a "taker."

Even if someone wanted to make the case that this is true (which I personally wouldn't), it can't be argued that this is anything but impolitic.

More details on this at the Journal-Sentinel.

The congressman says he began second-guessing his use of that language after a constituent approached him at the Rock County 4-H Fair in July 2012 and asked, "Who are the takers? Is it the person who lost their job and is on unemployment benefits? Is it the person who served in Iraq and gets their medical care through the VA?"

Ryan said he eventually stopped using the term when he realized that "it sounds like we're saying people who are struggling are deadbeats. ... The phrase gave insult where none was intended."

He also argues the GOP must move beyond its traditional coalition (a coalition in numerical decline), and this must of course include... some sort of comprehensive immigration reform.

Meanwhile, Ryan is out with a new argument in favor of his long-held brief against excessive government regulation: that the people most harmed by such regulations are the poor, who, having less money, are more damaged by the government's artificial inflation of the costs of literally every good sold in the US.

The regulatory part of Ryan’s anti-poverty plan goes after "regressive" federal rules -- those that have an outsize economic impact on low-income households.

Supporters of his plan say regulations are ultimately borne by ordinary consumers and households who pay extra when new restrictions are piled on to the products and services they use. The poor end up spending a greater share of their income to cover the added expense.

In some cases, the added costs pay for protections that are a higher priority for middle or upper-class households, said Creighton University associate economics professor Diana Thomas, whose research is cited in the Ryan report.

"By forcing everyone to pay for high income household preferences [e.g., trendily energy-efficient washing machines]... you’re going to affect lower income consumers negatively," she said.

DrewMTips has previously critiqued another aspect of Ryan's anti-poverty reforms, the bundling of grants into a unified "Opportunity Grant" which would, somehow, create better outcomes than the current system.

Edited: I had another whole post appended here.

I've decided it makes far more sense to post that as a stand-alone post.

This will result in my doing less work today.

So it's just a great idea.

The rest of the post will be put up at seven.


digg this
posted by Ace at 06:03 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere [/i] [/b]: "Morning, insomaniacals! I actually slept about en ..."

Braenyard: "Stefanie Lambert, an election integrity attorney w ..."

Epobirs: "The offending file(s) will usually make itself obv ..."

Epobirs: "Max Gail (Wojo) is apparently still around. He has ..."

Braenyard: "I don't mind renaming a file but going through 50 ..."

Epobirs: "New Tricks was more a more conventional police pro ..."

Epobirs: "I've usually gotten around the problem by copying ..."

Jim[/i][/b][/s][/u]: "New Tricks was the Brit version of Barney Miller, ..."

irongrampa: "Sitting here listening to music, mostly oldies tha ..."

publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb): ">> says you have 3 files with names too long for ..."

Epobirs: "New Tricks was on a lot longer than that. 2003-201 ..."

Braenyard: "Those 4bbl Holley's are light on the gas if you're ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64