Meet Paul Ryan: Big Government Illusionist

 "Madame Speaker, This bill offends my principles, but I’m going to vote for this bill in order to preserve my principles, in order to preserve this free enterprise system …"  - Paul Ryan in support of the TARP bailout, October 2008So much for the grand internet conspiracy theory that the Ron Paul campaign was secretly maneuvering for a VP slot for either Ron Paul himself or his son Senator Rand Paul.  Many even believed that Rand's controversial endorsement of Mitt Romney was an indicator that he would soon be named as Romney's VP choice in order to try to reel in the Ron Paul revolutionaries.  This always seeemed far fetched and silly to me.  It's true that Romney would love for all of those kooky Ron Paul folk to fall right in line and join Team Romney, as evidenced by his often complimentary stance towards Dr. Paul and even passive criticism of the Fed throughout his curious campaign.   But the idea of either Paul serving as Romney's running mate was always far-fetched.  Both Ron and Rand would have to drastically alter their message in order to run with Romney.The only real shot Romney has to defeat Barack Obama in November is to reframe the debate from focusing on Romney himself  to Obama's weakest points, which also happens to be the main issues of most "Tea Party" voters that at best have tepidly accepted Romney as the nominee: the economy and the national debt.  Of course educated voters know that nobody has presented a plan that would balance the budget anytime soon like  Ron Paul's Plan To Restore America, but educated voters aren't exactly the largest voting bloc nowadays.  Perception supercedes reality in politics.  And for perception, Romney needed to choose a running mate who is seen as a strong fiscal conservative  while at the same time having the ability to pull in the Independent votes.  This of course describes Ron Paul to the letter, but there is a third requirement that Paul could never meet - the ability to defend Romney's proposals while towing the Party line on war, torture, civil liberties, etc.Enter Paul Ryan.Paul Ryan is best known for his budget proposal, commonly referred to as "The Ryan Plan".  The Plan is oft-criticized by many on the left for it's drastic cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs for the poor.  By the same token his "bold" plan has received praise from many on the right, with Ryan being referred to as a "budget hawk and Tea Party darling"  and one supposed libertarian group is even praising him because he "gets free markets".   And to Ryan's credit, he has at least made an effort to have a conversation about the unsustainable nature of the national debt, something that many politicians avoid completely.  The credit ends there however, as Paul Ryan's proposal to "balance" the budget in reality does nothing of the sort.As Ron Paul pointed out in an interview earlier this year, Congressman Ryan's budget plan "doesn't cut anything of substance".  While the Ryan plan cuts domestic spending on social programs, it actually increases the military budget every single year.   The overall result? A plan that, despite major changes to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, still adds to the national debt.Paul Ryan has earned his reputation as a "budget hawk"  not by proposing actual signifigant cuts, but by using smoke and mirrors.  Ryan uses the political parlour trick known as "sequestration" to pretend both to rail against alleged cuts to the defense budget and to highlight cuts to Medicare and Medicaid when in reality there are no cuts at all.  All that sequestration does is make cuts to previously proposed spending increases, so the net result is still an increase in spending.  Ryan's plan cancels currently proposed sequestrations for the military while keeping in place cuts for Medicaid and Medicare.  But whether "sequestered" or not, all of these areas will still see an overall increase in government funding.For another example of Ryan's rhetorical tricks, let's take a look at his health care plan.  Part of Ryan's proposals for health care is to replace direct government payments with health insurance "vouchers".  Of course, much like with school vouchers, this system is just another method of government control disguised as being "free market".  Economist and blogging machine Robert Wenzel recently broke down Paul Ryan's voucher proposal:

Ryan's plan calls for keeping medicare intact for anyone who is 55 or older, then he gets slippery with his plan. For Americans currently under 55, his plan will give them a health insurance voucher as high as $8,000 per year. Government will get to decide what insurance companies are eligible to accept the vouchers. Ryan says all the major health insurers will be approved and accept the vouchers. Guess what that means? Edge to the major insurers.Ryan says his plan will eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board,aka the Death Panels, a panel of 15 experts nominated by the president to recommend policies to cut Medicare costs, which is part of Obama's Affordable Care Act. But it is just slick packaging by Ryan to claim that his program does not include a death panel. With the government approving what insurance companies are approved to accept vouchers, the government will also by necessity have to approve the minimum services and types of services the insurances companies will have to cover. In other words, Ryan's plan takes the death panel into a deeper and darker backroom. I suspect it would eventually drive out of the healthcare business all insurers that are not part of the voucher accepting crowd--just like Obamacare will do.Indeed, the Ryan plan has a lot of  other bells and whistles that Obamacare has. It requires insurance companies to insure people who have pre-existing conditions (which means someone, somehow, will be paying for these added costs heaped on the insurance companies for this) Ryan's plan also has adjustments on the size of the voucher based on wealth an income. It's socialist through and through.

And this is before we even look at Paul Ryans' voting record.  Paul Ryan voted YES on the following: TARP Bailout, Obama's 2009 Stimulus Package,  bailouts of GM and Chrysler, The Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Entitlement, No Child Left Behind, making the PATRIOT Act permanent, warrantless electronic surveillance...need I go on?  Actually, why don't I give Mr. Ryan a chance to speak for himself? Here's a clip of him in Congress advocating for free market principles and against TARP....right before he turning around and BEGGING Congress to pass TARP in order to "preserve" those very same principles.Paul Ryan should be a considered a very skilled politician. That meaning, he is adept at using rhetoric to craft a certain impression of himself and his policies.  He masterfully mixes free market rhetoric with big government policies to the point that his proposals  feel like they are tremendous steps forward in reducing debt and returning to free markets when in reality they are nothing of the sort.   Paul Ryan is a big government illusionist, and he and Mitt Romney go quite well together in that regard.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!Frankly, I couldn't think of a cuter couple.