If you read the Nation frequently, then you will know that John Nichols is a frequent writer there. He has written a great piece for both the Nation and OpEdNews that eviscerates Paul Ryan.
There are two versions of this article. One version can be found in Nichols’s blog in the Nation.
But far better one (in my humble opinion), can be found in his article for OpEdNews. [Correction, the exact same version was published in the Nation here]
He writes:
But Ryan would be a burden, not a booster, for a Romney-led ticket.
Like Romney, Ryan is a son of privilege who has little real-world experience or understanding. He presents well on Sunday morning talk shows and in the rarified confines of Washington think tanks and dinners with his constituents -- the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street -- but his record in Congress and the policies he now promotes are political albatrosses.
Some Republicans, perhaps even Romney, do not get this.
But the Obama campaign recognized, correctly, that Ryan's positioning of himself as the point man on behalf of an austerity that would remake America as a dramatically weaker and more dysfunctional country makes him the most vulnerable of prominent Republicans.
http://www.opednews.com/...
Ryan is a walking, talking, mass of contradiction. He says one thing but his actions speak louder than words.
The House Budget Committee chairman imagines himself as a high priest speaking unfortunate truths about debts and deficits, the unforgiving foe of social spending who would gladly sacrifice Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the altar of debt reduction. Ryan has branded himself well within Republican circles, so well that he has parlayed himself into contention for the vice presidential nod. To get that nomination, however, Ryan must count on the prospect that the party that takes as its symbol the memory-rich elephant will suddenly suffer a spell of forgetfulness. That's because the Republican congressman from Wisconsin, for all his bluster, is anything but a consistent advocate for fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets. He is, in fact, a hypocrite.
And how exactly is Ryan a hypocrite? Let’s find out:
Ryan has been a steady voter for unwise bailouts of big banks, unfunded mandates and unnecessary wars. Few members of Congress have run up such very big tabs while doing so little to figure out how to pay the piper.
As Ryan’s local Democratic challenger, Rob Zerban mentions about Ryan:
Congressman Paul Ryan can grandstand about the debt all he wants, but at the end of the day, Ryan is a root cause of many of the financial issues our country faces today," says Zerban. "From supporting two unfunded wars, to dumping millions of senior citizens into the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' while tying the hands of the government to negotiate prescription drug prices, and from fighting for subsidies for Big Oil that his family personally benefits from, to supporting the unfunded Bush tax cuts for his wealthiest campaign contributors, Paul Ryan's hypocrisy is astounding."
If Ryan ever gets into the White House (which from the looks of it seem very slim for now), his power has real life consequences for Americans:
Ryan's first vulnerability would be the legitimate concern about his willingness to rip apart the social safety net, under the guise of "reforms" that would undermine and eventually destroy Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Let’s not forget the real life consequences of Ryan’s thinking (via Think Progress):
House Republicans approved a budget in April that would drive up Medicare costs for seniors, and Mitt Romney has embracedthe plan crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).
http://thinkprogress.org/...