PAUL RYAN INTENDS TO INDOCTRINATE FRESHMEN…. If Republicans have a net gain of 39 House seats in the midterms, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will be the next chairman of the House Budget Committee. And while he hopes to advance to the job by downplaying his radical budget proposal, Ryan is already working on plans to indoctrinate next year’s freshman class.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the GOP’s top budget guy, and author of the “Roadmap for America’s Future” that suggests Congress partially privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into a voucher system — insists that his pet plan is not representative of the GOP’s official position on the fiscal future of the country. But he’s going to do all he can to make sure the incoming class of Republican House members are well versed in its conservative dogma.
In an interview with the National Review, Ryan said he’d attempt to win over new GOP members with the help of a freshly minted, fully updated version of the Roadmap. “What we need to do is quickly bring them up to speed,” Ryan said. […]
“Reinforcements are coming,” he said.
In the same National Review interview, the conservative Wisconsinite/Ayn Rand acolyte added that “dozens” of GOP candidates have quietly let him know that they support his budget blueprint.
I know it’s far too late to launch a massive campaign around educating voters about the Ryan plan, but I still find this pretty important. If you’re just joining us, Ryan’s “roadmap” is a right-wing fantasy, slashing taxes on the rich while raising taxes for everyone else. The plan calls for privatizing Social Security and gutting Medicare, and fails miserably in its intended goal — cutting the deficit. As Paul Krugman recently explained, the Ryan plan “is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America’s fiscal future.”
At this point, 13 House Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors of the radical scheme. As Ryan sees it, that number could conceivably quadruple if GOP midterm gains are large enough, and his right-wing “reinforcements” arrive.
Anyone assuming a Republican-led House next year would be as unpleasant as it was between 1995 and 2006 doesn’t fully appreciate how much the party has moved to the far-right since.
I am curious, though, about those “dozens” who’ve told Paul they support his “roadmap,” but haven’t let voters know about their intentions. What are they afraid of? Here’s a simple message for those folks: the more the party proudly proclaims its support for the radical budget plan, the more of a mandate the party can claim next year.
What do you say?
