Paul Ryan Is Still Not Running for President. Watch His YouTube Video Anyway.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) on tax reform + snazzy animated infographics = excellent Wednesday morning video viewing:

Ryan is not running for president, in case you were wondering.

This video is the third, and best, in what seems to be a very occasional "Path to Prosperity" series from the House Budget Committee, which Ryan chairs. Stay tuned for Episode IV: A New Hope.

In the meantime, read Reason's 2010 story on whether Ryan is a free market radical or a sellout right here:

PAUL RYAN, free market extremist: With an economics degree in his pocket and small-government conservatism in his blood—Calvin Coolidge appointed his grandfather as a U.S. attorney—Wisconsin's Paul Ryan rose quickly from Jack Kemp acolyte to ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee before the age of 40. A supply-sider and deficit hawk, Ryan is the author of the GOP's only Congressional Budget Office–certified "road map" to balance the budget and eliminate the long-term deficit. His proposal calls for politically courageous cuts to beloved entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid—cuts so drastic that New York Times contributor James Kwak summarized their effects under the headline: "People will die." Ryan has argued that the central battle in American politics is between "individualism and collectivism" and said, "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand."

Paul Ryan, free market sellout: Ryan voted in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the widely despised bank bailout. He also endorsed the taxpayer-funded auto bailout, citing "mounting hardships" in a part of his state once dominated by carmakers. His ballyhooed spending plan is so incrementalist that it wouldn't balance the budget until 2063. And this year, while defending his policies to The New York Times, the congressman declared, "I'm not trying to win an award from the Cato Institute."

Which of these two snapshots represents the real Ryan? They both do.

Via Politico Playbook.

Comments

[Au H20]

This better not be another "Lunchtime Links" bullshit kind of day, all right?

[sarcasmic]

Dude's been in politics since before finishing college.

He's a hack through and through.

["Yes Minister" Party Games -84]

Annie Hacker: [Bernard is waiting at the Hackers' flat for the Minister to come home] He's obviously been held up. You can stamp some of these cards for me while you're waiting if you like.
Bernard Woolley: Oh, but aren't they to constituents?
Annie Hacker: Yes.
Bernard Woolley: Well, that's not government business, Mrs Hacker, that's political activity. I'm not allowed to help with the Minister's political activities.
Annie Hacker: Suppose they were all to journalists?
Bernard Woolley: Oh, that would be alright.
Annie Hacker: They're all to journalists.
Bernard Woolley: Fine. I suppose licking is an essential part of relationships with the press.

[Au H20]

That show is the best.

[Rich]

"We must fix our unfair, loophole-ridden, wasteful, horribly complex tax code."

Then effin' fix it already!

The fact that year after year "tax reform" basically just gets lip service is one of my favorite justifications for voting out incumbents.

[ListenEllipse]

Why is it unfair that people get to keep more of their money? Every business should aspire to be like GE, we'd all be better off if private entities had more money and the government less. More tax breaks! Loopholes for everyone!

[tgb1000]

But closing loopholes constitutes a tax increase. I heard that somewhere. And the number of brackets is hardly what makes the tax code complicated and time-consuming.

He speaks so calm and reasonably, it almost sounds like he knows what he is talking about.