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No wonder he looks surprised so often.
There's something that's been bugging me for a while about House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), but I haven't been able to put my finger on it. Until now, that is.
The congressman talked to Bloomberg TV this morning, and reporter Peter Cook raised the prospect of some kind of compromise with Democrats, in light of Sen. Patty Murray's (D-Wash.) Senate Democratic budget. Take a look at Ryan's response:
"Well, I would say to the Patty Murray school of thought to the President Obama school of thought, they've got their tax increases. They got $1.6 trillion in tax increases that are just now starting to hit the economy. But we have yet to get the spending cuts."
Now, right off the bat, it's important to note that Democrats didn't get $1.6 trillion in tax increases. Earlier this year, they got about $600 billion in new revenue -- Ryan is only off by $1,000,000,000,000 -- which Republicans on the House Budget Committee found so offensive, they included the money in their own budget plan. Maybe Ryan forgot about this?
But even if we put that aside, there's the matter of Ryan's assertion that Republicans haven't already successfully received spending cuts. The problem, of course, is that Ryan seems to have forgotten 2011, when Democrats accepted nearly $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, with no accompanying revenue, as part of the GOP's debt-ceiling hostage strategy.
At the time, Ryan boasted about all the spending cuts he and his party had won by threatening to hurt Americans on purpose. Less than two years later, the far-right Wisconsinite appears to have forgotten about the policy altogether. How is that possible?
It's not just today, either. Ryan keeps reinforcing suspicions that his memory is alarmingly bad.
Ryan doesn't remember that he used to refer to his own plan to end Medicare as "vouchers."
Ryan doesn't remember taking credit for the sequestration policy he later condemned.
Ryan doesn't remember learning about Democratic alternatives to the sequester.
Ryan doesn't remember what happened with the 2011 "super committee."
Ryan doesn't remember Bill Clinton's tax increases.
Ryan doesn't remember the times he condemned social-insurance programs as "taker" programs.
Ryan doesn't remember all of the times he appealed to the Obama administration for stimulus funds for his congressional district.
Ryan doesn't remember his marathon times.
Ryan doesn't remember how much he was inspired by Ayn Rand.
Ryan doesn't remember his own speeches.
Everyone can be forgetful once in a while, but the Republican Budget Committee chairman seems to forget rather important details and developments so often, it's rather unsettling.
The alternative, of course, is that Ryan's memory is fine and he shamelessly lies when it suits his purposes, but why be uncharitable? Let's instead just assume that the poor congressman suffers from a terrible memory.
Maybe it's some weird political version of Changnesia?
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Maybe Ryan can't remember because he is affected by an early stage of dementia?
He's just lying . He's spouting the party line about the tax increases, etc. He just says what they tell him to say.
Could it be an extension of Romnesia?
What you are witnessing is not memory loss but the workings of a sociopath. Lying is second nature. What he says right now is all that is true to him and all that matters. A proven idiot when it comes to budget matters but he still gets the microphone to blather on. Memory?...Please.
No he's just another liar in the GOP.
They're a collection of people deeply offended by democracy.
No, because if he did, it would be an admission of treason for which he should be executed.
Nah.....I think it's just lack of compassion and advancing Alzheimer's.
Nah, Ryan is a pathological liar. Even FAUX and FOOLS Network called him out on his mulitple lies during the presidential campaign. The man wouldn't know the truth if it reared up and slapped him across the face. Lets not be polite or pc about his penchant for distorting and manipulating the facts.
Maybe Ryan has the new disease that seems to be going around called Global Transient Amnesia. All those cuts to social programs has left him in severe trauma.
at least he has forever socialist health coverage to take care of that should he choose.
This is a case of talking points outweighing truth...it's not that Ryan "Forgot" any of this stuff or that he didn't know it...it's that the Republican base doesn't know it and no one wants them to, including themselves. Life in the bubble demands a certain amount of willful ignorance...and they will just never ever admit that this President is doing anything...they just simply will never recognize any white house effort let alone success.
I honestly can't help but wonder if there isn't some kind of schoolyard strategy at work here to get the administration to engage them and try and call them out on this stuff so that they can spin them as hostile and reactionary laying the groundwork for revisionist historians to rewrite this presidency
He also doesn't remember, and neither does Benen, the Bush tax cuts which were made permanent at the start of this year. When the republicans say that Obama got his tax increases in January the right rejoinder is that the republicans got their tax cuts at the same time.
They also forget that the payroll tax, which affects the working class, went UP.
Of course that didn't affect those making over $100,000.00 a year, so that did not trouble the GOP.
Sorry but those are now the Obama tax cuts. You may remember they were supposed to expire, but Obama kept them alive. Meanwhile, The $1.6 trillion in spending cuts isn't real. It's just a smaller rate of increase. But yes the tax hike on the rich is real money.
No, Silly, Those are not Obama tax cuts. He kept them alive to appease the Republicans who threatened him with shutting down the government.
Simpleguy-7868568 you were very kind to Shooter 242, he has Changnesia he or she believe what they Republican say, the President passes and votes on Bills. They forget it was the Republican Party that included it in at the last minuet. Shooter242 writes like a true Changnesia who makes over 250 thousand a year! he forgot what the Republican and President Bush did with tax revenue. they gave it back, knowing about the Baby Boomer, and the effect they would have on or economy and social programs. they started a war, ( I say they because the Republican lead the way starting with President Bush) with out paying for it!! Now all the Republican say is we have a spending problem! we have and accountability Problem!! We also have a Changnesia problem. Yes Simpleguy-7868568 you are too kind.
Oh, goody. Shooter242 is flapping his trolling lips (keyboard) again:
Sounds like a case of "Early Onset Alzheimer's or that dreaded disease "CRS" (Can't Remember Sh*t).
Ryan doesn't remember who won the election in 2012.
#6,
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
"Ryan doesn't remember who won the election in 2012."
VoR
That's the problem. He'd like to forget as would Romney.
It seems that no republicans remember who won the elections. They seem to think that by holding on to the House by a slim margin that somehow their policies won a mandate. They continue to talk as if the majority want their policies and they fight for them , in spit of having lost the White House again and having lost seats in both the House and Senate. They need to learn that this wasn't just one election that they lost, but many and that the American people decided they liked the policies of the other party better.
Truth is overrated. What's important is what you can get people to repeat.
At least, that's what Limbaugh told me, and now I'm repeating it.
It's not Ryan's memory that's bad. He adheres to the GOP philosophy, promoted By Rush and Fox, that if you tell a lie often enough, sooner or later a lot of people will believe it.
Nothing wrong with my memory. I remember their campaign and the abundance of lies they all told and then swore to and then their minions swore to as the Gospel. His party does not seem to be bothered by compulsive lying.
Ryan's budget is what is bad, not his memory. He might have read less Ayn Rand and more of the real Gospel.
He's just challenging reporters to call him out on it. And they fail practically every time. It seems pretty clear that Peter Cook from Bloomberg failed. If the media allows them to lie without consequence, why would they stop?
The media has failed miserably in this way. Unless you watch MSNBC exclusively you never hear them being called what they are: Bald faced liars.
No, I'll go with the Shameless Liar Theory.
He seems like a perfectly normal weightlifter to me.
The politics of ALZHEIMERS & MAGIC
Every new day it's square one politically AND
I have the power to erase everyone's memory bank.
Time stop being polite - Paul Ryan is a very sick puppy.
Didn't quite get his marathon time right either and believe me, all who have run them know their times to the minute.
or at least they aren't close to as far off as he was.
Charlie Pierce is right: Paul Ryan is simply a zombie-eyed granny starver.
Let me get this straight: Ryan and Boehner are both fond of saying "Obama got his tax increase..." but they have never once said anything like "Well, we got our tax cut, and another on top of that, and another on top of that..."
Come to think of it, I haven't heard any Democrats point that out either.
A habit of lying, the inability to feel empathy or sympathy for others and
a lack of guilt or remorse. They call that a sociopath.
Another thing about a sociopath, the better you get to know them the less you like them. They are kind of charming at first and then the real thing breaks through.
Hmmmm..., the irresponsible Bush tax cuts that Democrats railed against for 12 years were made the even-more-irresponsible Obama tax cuts that Democrats actually fought to make permanent in 2013.
And what is it Democrats are now crying about? Revenue? That why you voted for Democrats? Them boys and girls sho' do know how to use that power we gave them, don't they?
Paulzheimer's
It could be from that summer he drove the Wienermobile, the only real job he's ever had.
Clearly, he got Romnesia from the master.
We are simpler here out in the West. We call him LIAR!
I hope Pauly has his name written inside his underwear.
He spouts the party line, like his handlers tell him. Nobody cares if its right, as long as they keep repeating it until single item voters begin to repeat it too. There are a whole bunch of voters that vote purely on the really cool campaign ad they see once, whether its true or not.
The real problem with memory and the party line, is that it is difficult to remember if you have to wait for the phone call telling you the lie and giving you the party line. It's a poor play when aside scripts keep coming in!
LOL-"Paulzheimer's" I needed that sort of pick-me-up today, Bravo ahoypolloi!!!!!
I agree with the consensus, it goes back to GW's stunning admission that if you keep repeating the propaganda over and over, people will buy/believe it...I paraphrase, but that's not far off from literal...
The bigger question is: WHY does the media let him get away with it?? The answer is the profligate nature of today's media. There are so many outlets, and so many different venues, that it is unnecessary for the lie-masters to bother giving their time to someone who might dare to question the mighty Oz... Why do you think Paul Ryan is as scarce on Rachel's show as an AA pamphlet? He doesn't care that he would have an opportunity to actually reach out to the Left and make a case based on facts, heavens no, Rachel is 3X smarter than he is, and significantly more prepared...she would shred him with his own words, or god forbid, facts....
No, the Right wing has one thing figured out, when it comes to the media they know they won't be challenged on air because they know they have the ability to withdraw to their own news network FOX or their own radio empire Hannity/Rush etc and avoid any sort of pulling back on the curtain... silly wabbit, facts are for Dems...
Let's not forget how he "forgot" his time when he ran a marathon. No other runner ever forgets their personal record.
Thank you Rachel for keeping on top of this record. Most just believe what they hear today, and do not remember how quickly the story changes from day to day. Romnesia runs deep in these individuals, who have followers forgetting the same things. Amazing. Keep up the good work Rachel!