Ryan Talks the Talk but Crawls the Walk
Paul Ryan’s Cut funding everywhere (but for my district!) budget stance shows the operative GOP principal: government spending bad … except for me.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, has staked out a reputation in Congress as a fiscal conservative. He has spoken out against President Obama’s efforts to jump-start the economy with the stimulus law, and after a conversion a few years ago now opposes earmarks. But when it comes to helping out his district in southern Wisconsin, Ryan’s principles have been flexible.
Ryan was never a fan of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as the stimulus is officially known. He voted against it when it came to the House floor in 2009, as did every other House Republican, and he railed against it in frequent TV appearances.
“Temporary stimulus does not work,” he said on CNBC. “It does not give businesses confidence to invest in jobs and capital for the future. It’s just sort of sugar high economics.”
But despite his denunciations of the measure, Ryan made sure his constituents were not left out when the money was divvied up. When the Energy Center of Wisconsin, a nonprofit that promotes energy-efficient buildings sought Ryan’s help in obtaining stimulus money, he came through.