Paul Ryan now champions economic survivalism, but it wasn't that long ago that he too was a Kensyian and loudly endorsed the need for government stimulus and spending to promote and produce job growth during a time of recession.
Ryan in 2010:
>> Ryan: too many are searching for answers in the discredited economic playbook of borrow and spend keynesian policies. i reject only government intervention in the government can secure this country's renewed prosperity. adherence to this premise has given us a damaging policy mixture. it has sparked government spending spree and borrowing binge. workers, taxpayers and families across this country have been guinea pigs. washington's economic experiment has failed.
>> Hayes: so, no keynesian, borrow and spend, deficit spending to boost recovery and jobs during a period of an output gap when you're in a recession that's all bad but conceptually broken. as it turns out paul ryan's request for millions of dollars in recovery spend is only the tip. iceberg when it comes to his hypocrisy on stimulus. we turned up video of ryan in we does far more than advocate for one specific stimulus item but makes a full throated no holds bar argument at length for the basic concept of keynesian stimulus, government spending to create jobs deficit government spending to create jobs. in 2002 with president bush in the white house as the couldn't went through the post-9/11 recession ryan made a powerful una p unapologetic case for business investment but also an extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance benefits. here's a look at some of that video from february 14th, 2002 where congressman congress argued that health insurance is necessary even after economic recovery begin.
>> Ryan: what we're trying to accomplish today with the passage of this third stimulus package is to create jobs and help the unemployed. now i've just recently read in our local capitol hill newspaper that members from the majority party and the other body want stimulus. they are breaking with their party leadership and asking for stimulus legislation to pass because in their home states they have a lot of people who are losing their jobs. what we're trying to accomplish is to pass the kinds of legislation that they passed in the past have grown the economy and gotten people back to work. we want to make it easier for employers to keep people employed. we want to make it easier for employers to invest in their business, to invest in their employees and to hire people back to work. on top of it for those people that lost their jobs we want to help them with their unemployment insurance and with health insurance. what we're trying to accomplish here is recognition of the fact that in recessions, unemployment lags on even well after recovery has taken place.
>> Hayes: you guys get all that? did you get all that? do you get the full thing there? in the same house session ryan, i should say when he's talking the majority in the house he's talking about senate democrats who are helping president bush pass a stimulus because they think it's the best thing to do even though their partisan interest is to destroy the agenda of the president from the other party. senate democrats went for the stimulus. in the same house session ryan argues, i love this, he argues that those worries about fiscal discipline and deficits, because this is albio roed mon -- this is all about fiscal stimulus.
>> Ryan: we have a lot of laid off workers and more layoffs are occurring. we know as a historical fact that even if our economy begins to slowly recover that unemployment will linger on well after that recovery takes place. what we've been trying to do starting in october then in december and now the to try to get people back to work. things we're trying to passing this bill are the time tested proven bipartisan solutions to get businesses to stop laying off people, to hire people back, and to help those people who have lost their jobs. it's more than just giving someone unemployment check. it's also helping those people with their health insurance while they've lost their jobs and more important than just that unemployment check is to do what we can to give people a paycheck. we've got to get their engine of economic growth growing again because we now know because of the recession we don't have the revenues we wanted to. we don't have the revenues we need to fix medicare, to fix social security, to fix these issues, we've got to get americans back to work, then the surpluses come back, then the jobs come back, that is the constructive answer we're trying to accomplish here. yes on a bipartisan basis. i urge members to drop the demo demogogury and get people back to work.
>> Everyone: who is that guy?
Yeah, who is that guy? Maybe Paul Ryan of 2012 should meet the Paul Ryan of 2002! Maybe he should meet Tanya Wells.
Well, since a TARDIS isn't handy, I think in the meanwhile - he needs to meet the American Voters.
One last thing, you actually don't need to go back a decade : Paul Ryan Voted for a $715 Billion Republican Stimulus Plan in 2009.
>>> Hayes: so we just played i think a pretty jaw dropping bit of tape from 2002, and it shows paul ryan defending what was then a bush, george w. bush stimulus and using every single argument on the basic defendant argument about stimulus. i'm curious, mike you've written this book that's the most i think thorough investigation of the recovery act and politics of it and what did it. what is your response when you hear that?
>> Grunwald: shocked. [ laughter ] you know, i think i to tell the story in the book about how, you know, republicans even before obama took office had decided that essentially anything obama stands for they are going to have to fight. stimulus, you know, paul ryan supported the 2002 bush stimulus, he supported the 2008 bush stimulus. this was not a controversial topic. in 2008 every presidential candidate had a stimulus plan. $250 million, mitt romney stimulus plan. the largest of all of them. and, republicans, you know, the $780 billion obama stimulus which had tax cuts and spending which was tyrannical socialish but there was a republican substitute that was $715 billion of spending and tax cuts that was apparently good public policy. paul ryan voted for that one too.
>> Hayes: paul ryan voted for $715 billion in stimulus?
>> Grunwald. He most certainly did. there was an interesting argument inside the republican leadership where mike pence side the true ideological kind of conservative said we should yoult new deal democrats but erjake cantors and paul ryan said no we need to do something that, you know our moderates can vote for because the most important thing is to get everybody say yes to so they can say no to obama. paul ryan, of course, fell off both sides of the horse. he vote forward the ideological one and the political one and then trashed the very similar obama one as the death of american free enterprise.
>> Hayes: this goes to show romney and ryan are a match made in heaven. they walk around with an etch-a-sketch. we're not seeing these clips on fox news. it's great this hypocrisy has go to be exposed because in fact we have to stimulate the economy through this kind of spending.
Well isn't that just perfect. He was pro-keynes, he was pro-stimulus and now he's not. Just like Mitt Romney who was pro-mandate, pro-exchanges and now he's not.
Vyan
