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Last week, after House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) blamed President Obama for automatic sequestration cuts, I reported an overlooked detail: in August 2011, Ryan told Fox News that he and congressional Republicans deserve credit for the sequester, which contradicts the new GOP line.
The good news is, someone at ABC News noticed my post. The better news is, ABC's Jonathan Karl confronted Paul Ryan with the quote and asked for an explanation. Here's what the far-right congressman said in response:
"So those are the budget caps on discretionary spending [1]. Those occurred. We want those. Everybody wants budget caps. The sequester we're talking about now was backing up the super-committee. Remember the super committee in addition to those caps was supposed to come up with $1.2 trillion in savings. The Republicans on the super-committee offered even higher revenues in exchange for spending cuts as part of that [2]. It was rejected by the president and the Democrats [3].
"So no resolution occurred and therefore the sequester is occurring. And what we've always said is let's cut spending in smarter ways to replace this sequester. We passed two bills doing that and we've heard nothing in response from the Senate Democrats or the president [4]."
This certainly won't help the "Lyin' Ryan" moniker go away anytime soon, since there's almost nothing in the response that was true. Consider: [1] when Ryan boasted about the sequester in August 2011, he wasn't talking about budget caps, he was talking about the sequester; [2] GOP members on the super-committee didn't offer "higher revenues," but rather, they offered tax breaks they said might someday lead to higher revenues; [3] President Obama and congressional Democrats were desperate to strike a super-committee compromise, but Republicans refused; and [4] the White House and Senate Democrats have proposed a sequester alternative, but the House GOP has not.
In other words, Ryan was confronted with a fact -- he took credit for the policy he now wants to blame on the president -- and he responded with a series of claims, each of which are demonstrably false. It's almost as if the House Budget Committee chairman assumes there are no consequences for saying things that aren't true.
Wait, it gets worse.
Here's Ryan explaining in the same interview why he wants a sequester deal in which Republicans get 100% of what they want.
"[T]aking tax loophole[s], what we've always advocated is necessary for tax reform, means you're going to close loopholes to fuel more spending not to reform the tax code. [...]
"[I]f you take tax loopholes to fuel more spending, which is what they're proposing, then you are preventing tax reform, which we think is necessary, to end crony capitalism and to grow the economy."
I'd like to get the DC establishment together and make them write on a blackboard 100 times, "Paul Ryan is not a deficit hawk; he just wants to cut taxes."
This quote is important because it illustrates a larger truth about the fiscal debate. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the tax code has loopholes and unnecessary deductions that should be eliminated. Democrats and Republicans also agree that closing these loopholes and scrapping those unnecessary deductions would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.
But Ryan's answer to ABC makes clear exactly where the two parties diverge: Democrats believe the hundreds of billions of dollars should be used to reduce the nation's long-term debt problem, while Republicans believe the hundreds of billions of dollars must be applied to more tax cuts.
I don't know how much clearer this can get for the political establishment: Paul Ryan realizes that bipartisan tax reform could produce a half-trillion dollars or more in savings, which would do wonders to resolve the "debt crisis" Republicans occasionally pretend to care about, but Ryan insists it's not actually tax reform unless all of that money is applied to giving the wealthy tax breaks they don't need.
As Jon Chait explained, "Obama is offering to cut spending on retirement programs and to cancel out cuts to defense -- two things large chunks of the GOP would like -- in return for more revenue. He's not even demanding higher rates. He's merely asking to reduce tax deductions. Ryan insists he won't take the deal, because if he uses the revenue from reducing tax deductions to close the deficit, it won't be available to reduce tax rates. Every other fiscal priority must give way for the overriding goal of reducing marginal tax rates."
If you think Paul Ryan is serious about debt reduction, it's time to accept the fact that you've been suckered.
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How can he talk without a brain.
Out his ass.
Isn't the sequester essentially a watered down version of a balanced budget amendment?
Paul Ryan is irrelevant.
Ryan DEFINITELY practices IF YOU CAN'T BEDAZZLE 'EM WITH BRILLIANCE,THEN BEFUDDLE 'EM WITH BULLSH*T!!! Then HOPE that the people don't figure out the TRUTH!!!
Ryan knows how the TV game is played.
He just keeps spinning and deflecting until the network runs out of time for the segment.
Also, like many conservative media personalities Ryan has mastered the art of defining your opponent. (There's got to be a word for this rhetorical technique. Perhaps some astute person on this forum knows the answer.)
When he says things like "Let's take a step back" or "The point I'm trying to make is" he launches into what the Democrats aren't doing. This serves the dual purpose of painting his opponents in the negative while at the same time deflecting attention away Republican inaction. He shifts the conversation to focus on a distortion of his opponents position so he doesn't have to defend his own.
He's a slippery one, that Ryan.
Ryan knows lying works. The vast majority of Americans pay no attention to challenges to those facts, and the lies go unanswered. Even when confronted men like Ryan obfuscate and there are no consequences for lying. When they make false statements, those are often cited by people over and over again, even the media will repeat the lie when they report what was said, without clearly defining it as a lie. In the absence of accountability there will be no change, and lying will continue to be effective.
Happyin KC, I have very often had this same train of thoughts. Are these elected offices just evil or dumb? In the case of Cheney & Rumsfeld we're talking evil and Cheney continues to financially benefit from his orchestrated war. I am appalled that the senate filibustered Hagel because he spoke FOR the soldiers sent to war on false pretenses. Mitch McConnell & Beohner now find themselves in the evil doer category with Cheney for deciding to obstructing governing because everything did not follow their personal power agendas. We must get these folks out by finding good candidates for their posts NOW! The country is doing pretty well DESPITE them.
Love the rap, Rick Ayers.
""[T]aking tax loophole[s], what we've always advocated is necessary for tax reform, means you're going to close loopholes to fuel more spending not to reform the tax code. [...]
"[I]f you take tax loopholes to fuel more spending, which is what they're proposing, then you are preventing tax reform, which we think is necessary, to end crony capitalism and to grow the economy.""
I truly wish you had published the whole quote because you did some Sherlock Holmes for Paul Ryan. From that quote I would say he has no idea at all what he is talking about.
This is awesome.
Reforming the tax code by closing loopholes is not reforming the tax code.
I am 72 years old and my country has been at war all of my life. We need to end our fascination with wars of all kinds. Most of our US budget goes to defense. Defense from whom? Why do we need troops in Japan, South Korea or Germany? We have troops all over the world when they would be better at home defending our borders. The rich folk do not fear war because their sons and daughters are not in danger because there is no draft. Bring back the draft and they will have to find draft dodging like Bush did.
These people don't remember which lie they told you yesterday. Bobby Jindal is right "they are the party of Stupid."
The first paragraph says it all succinctly and now there is proof sequestration will place a scarlet (L) for losers on the TEA-ques-traitors of the right wing. American capitalism as currently practiced clearly redistributes income upward. According to Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the richest 1 percent of Americans now hold 25 percent of the country's wealth. The total income share for the 1 percent has jumped more in the U.S. than in any other major Western country since 1960, according to new research by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. The top 1 percent's share of income dipped in some European countries and increased by up to 4 percentages elsewhere, but in the good old U.S., land of opportunity, it soared over 9 percentage points. The top 10 percent of earners hauled in 46.5 percent of all income in 2011, the highest proportion since 1917 – and that doesn’t even include money earned from investments. The wealthy have benefitted from favorable tax status and the rise in stock prices, while the rest have been hit with a continuing unemployment crisis that has kept wages down. Saez believes this trend will continue in 2013. "Sweep your state Capital CLEAN....in 2014" "Sweep the House CLEAN....in 2014" "Sweep the Senate CLEAN....in 2014"
When will people finally realise that the main reason--no, the ONLY reason--the GOP opposes everything Obama proposes is that he is BLACK and the Republicans cannot stomach the idea of a black man is in the WH in a higher position than servant.
They will ALWAYS oppose Obama. They made that pledge on his first Inauguration day. Mitch McConnell confirmed it: "Our FIRST priority is to make Obama a one term president". Since that didn't work, they are determined to make Obama's life a living hell. And if the country suffers--oh, well--collateral damage. No biggie.
Vote them all out and things WILL happen. Until then, sorry, it will be more of the same:OBSTRUCTION RULES, Hatred of Obama rules, the Black Man must be destroyed.
GOP=traitors to the Constitution, the Office of the President, the President himself and to their sworn oath to serve the People.
You are wrong for getting on here and spreading hate, You are putting a label on half the country who voted Republican. It is sad, that you don't see the failure of this administration for what it is. It always has to be about race, huh. I do believe that was the intention of the other party. I will say this, obama and his administration are masters of propaganda. Turning us against each other. News flash! People are getting fed up with the race card. All the while people are SLAVE to their own thinking.
Great distinction made, Rachel. Thank you for making it clear how both sides can say the same thing yet be in complete contradiction, hence not agreeing to terms. Nightly news (non-cable) should have a graphic on this to make it clear to the average American (like me) who can't fathom how both sides seemingly want the same thing, but arrive at it from different angles that aren't apparent to us average folk.
Lying Ryan, sums it all up. I wouldn't trust this man at all and am surprised anyone does.
Maybe if you had been any good with math you would have know that Ryan was LYIN back during the presidential campaign. You cannot give more tax breaks to the already rich in exchange for jobs that they do not have a need to fill and balance our out of balance budget/debt all at the same time. It would be my desire to cut MY taxes any time but realism is that it does cost money to operate the government and someone does have to pay. The rich have reaped much benefit from the economy and now owe some debt to that society for that boost. It is now time to pay the piper for all those profits they reaped off the economy. How is it that the rich have gotten so much richer while the poor have gotten more poor and the middle class has slipped to poor? How is it that the six heirs of Sam Walton reaped $15 Billion all the while their employees earned below poverty levels? Who should owe society for the consequences of the poverty that the Waltons have spread while collecting such obscene profits?
There is no IQ test that someone has to pass to be elected to office. Most of the politicians who say this stuff are really that dumb. I know it's terrifying, but I'm afraid it's the literal truth. They are morons sent to their state capitals or to Washington to represent morons.
Ryan is still pushing that dreamworld on us in which trickle down works. Since we have had decades to figure out that it doesn't, we should be working on the model that IS effective, which is taxation of wealth, applied to the deficit. The rich will stay rich, and the rest of us can avoid a complete economic disaster.
lying ryan...yep.... the moniker fits this low life whore of hate.
i am glad that people the republican for who they really are
It may take a hundred years for some people to realize what the NY Police, Firefighters, first re-sponders, and all their wives and children, and the mayor, and his dog, all know -- that 9/11 is an inside job. As it was happening the rescuers saw the writing on the walls...
It had one purpose; to stir up Americans and their allies so that murdering Dubya Bush and Milk-toast Cheney could go in and rob Iraq, with our blessings.
It's a smash and dash job, Bush and Cheney are just hired hands, grievous "Yes-men."
Wake up everyone. Just think you haven't even figured out how they blew JFK's brains out. How long is it going to take you to discover the truth about our war on terror?
After reading some of these responses, I am not confident that any of you will ever get the help you need to make decisions for yourselves.
So, if you think "lyin' Ryan" is your new best hope, or if you think Obama is doing things right, I suggest you journalists look at money trails. High powered TV journalists should have resources to track Ryan, Boehner, the others... and see who really owns them. We don't have a two party system... think about it, please.
It's frustrating to see Ryan and the Republicans contradict themselves and that is the whole of the story. Sure it's hypocracy exemplified but if you really want to point at the irresponsible behavior just look at his budget plan. Deficit spending would have continued and was not estimated to become a surplus until 2040. In the next ten years the debt would have grown to 23 to 26 trillion (depending on which version you read) and interest on the debt during that period would increase to 900 billion annually...about 30% of total revenue and 200 billion MORE than the increased defense budget.
My representative voted for the Ryan budget every time in the last session of Congress. Since it did not get through the Senate he has now decided to hold the President accountable to a far more aggressive goal co-sponsoring a new bill that would require a budget surplus within the next ten years. How's that for a double standard!?!
Trust anyone in government and you are the fool they are addressing their agenda to...no matter what party! they all have skin in the game!
Like it or not...President Obama is the one that put sequester on the table....not Ryan. The republicans agreed with it.....let's not confuse the issue...let's stop the bs and deal with the problems at hand....we are in trouble and if someone doesn't demonstrate seriously that reform in some areas are needed.
I posted a video of it, wonder who will watch it?
Dysfunctional Rachel Maddow - I suppose you blame everyone for whatever you choose to do. Quit protecting this wimpy President. He is the leader & he doesn't lead, he blames and whines. Read up on what the characteristics of a good leader is - this man doesn't have it. Watch him turn on you down the road..
I totally agree!
oK, SO, I still can't believe after all the lies and failed policy's of obama's, you guys go as far back as Bush for the blame game. Here is a short video. I am sure that most won't watch it because it holds the truth in it. I am also sure that most won't watch it and still argue with me about it. In my opinion, most of you need your head examined. http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-caught-in-bald-faced-lie-on-sequester/
oh, and another thing, while engaging in stupid arguments, ask your self this....are you just arguing because you are a Democrat and want to save face and not be wrong? Whats wrong with calling it like it is?