warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Paul Ryan's Views On Entitlements Attacked Before State Of The Union Response

Tracy Bloom |
January 25, 2011 | 2:01 p.m. PST

Executive Producer

Rep. Paul Ryan (Creative Commons)
Rep. Paul Ryan (Creative Commons)
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is slated to give the official Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union later tonight, and Democrats have already launched a preemptive attack on the House Budget Committee chairman. According to The Hill, Ryan has become the Democrats' new villain.

Among the political beliefs Democrats are attacking are Ryan's views on entitlements which, The Atlantic reports, stand in stark contrast to President Obama's.

Last year, Ryan introduced a fiscal roadmap that would effectively privatize social security and raise the retirement age.

Senate Democrats have pushed Ryan to explain his beliefs to the American public. "Paul Ryan owes it to the national audience tonight to explain why he wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a news release.

The Hill reported:

Schumer’s strategy is to highlight the link between GOP efforts to cut as much as $50 billion from the federal budget and a “roadmap” to create private accounts for Social Security and Medicare that Ryan created.

“This is an initial volley in a three-day effort — 72-hour window — to try to muddle Paul Ryan’s foray onto the national scene,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide. “We want to make the House Republicans or Republicans at large own his roadmap and what it would entail for Social Security.”

However, The Los Angeles Times reports that Ryan is not expected to discuss entitlements in his response:

Ryan's tough talk on entitlements has won him support among fiscal conservatives, with some pundits suggesting that he should consider a 2012 presidential run in a party hungry for fresh faces. The official GOP response is often given to a young, up-and-coming figure in the party. Last year, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell gave the remarks, with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal representing the party in 2009.

Ryan isn't expected to discuss cutting entitlements Tuesday evening, but instead is expected to call for an end to a "spending binge" in Washington and is likely to link raising the federal debt limit later this year to an agreement with Democrats on deep budget cuts. He helped lead a House vote Wednesday in which Republicans passed a resolution directing his committee to set a 2011 budget that caps spending at 2008 levels.

The 41-year-old Ryan, known as a numbers wonk among conservatives, is considered a rising star in the GOP. Upon his selection last week to give the official response, the New York Times reported:

The choice of Mr. Ryan gives Republicans a chance to emphasize their core message: government spending must come down to reduce the nation’s annual deficit and long-term debt.

Speaker John A. Boehner called Mr. Ryan “uniquely qualified to address the state of our economy and the fiscal challenges that face our country.”

“We’re broke, and decisive action is needed to help our economy get back to creating jobs and end the spending binge in Washington that threatens our children’s future,” Mr. Boehner said.

In a written statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “Chairman Ryan’s unique understanding of the fiscal problems we face, his command of policy and his adherence to the principles of our nation’s founding make him an excellent spokesman for the path that Americans want Washington to take.”



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness