You asked, "Who is Paul Ryan?" Here's a response.
Well, early one recent Saturday morning we learned that Congressman Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin, is to be Mitt Romney's pick for the next Vice President of The United States.
What are we to think of this selection? He's not a graduate of Columbia University. He's not a graduate of Harvard. He wasn't selected as the President of the Harvard Law Review. He didn't get a special free quota scholarship ride to any prestigious university and, instead, had to work his way through Miami University of Ohio. For God's sake the man drove the Oscar Mayer Wiener Truck one summer and waited tables another!
One morning when Paul Ryan was sixteen years old he went in to wake his father and found him dead of a heart attack. He didn't write two books about that experience (like Obama did). Instead, he assumed the role of adult at an early age, never having the luxury to pursue youthful drug use and the art of socialist revolution.
Instead, Paul Ryan and his mother took his grandmother, suffering from Alzheimers, into the household and served as the primary care provider for his grandma. His grandma wasn't the Vice President of the Bank of Hawaii (like Obama's) so she could offer nothing in return, except the element of "need".
Once Paul Ryan got his BA in Economics from Miami University of Ohio, he was hired as a staff economist in Wisconsin Senator Kastin's office. The job must have not paid well because young Ryan moonlighted as a waiter and fitness trainer. No one offered him a "token honor" position at the University of Chicago and a $200,000 dollar a year salary.
When a still young Paul Ryan returned to Wisconsin to run for Congress he didn't demonize his opponent and dig up dirt to shovel against him. He waited until the standing Congressman vacated the office before seeking the office. In Janesville, Wisconsin they don't have a big political machine to promote you, to criminalize your opponent; instead Paul Ryan had to go door to door and sit at kitchen tables and listen to his future constituents.
After getting elected to Congress, Paul Ryan didn't triumphantly march into Washington, buy himself a Georgetown townhouse and proceed over to K Street to rub elbows with lobbyists. He bunked in his Congressional office and used the house gym for showers and a fresh change of clothes.
Paul Ryan then married and took his bride back to Janesville. He lives on the same street he lived on as a kid and shares the neighborhood with eight other members of the Ryan clan. He hunts with the local Janesville hunt club and attends PTA meetings and other civic functions.
For those who can't make those public functions, Paul Ryan bought an old bread truck, converted it into a "mobile constituent office" and drives around to meet with those who need his help and attention.
No, I don't know if we can vote for a guy like this. He doesn't have a regal pedigree; he's Irish for God's sake! No one awarded him a Nobel Peace Prize two months after getting elected. No one threw flowers or got "chills down their leg" as a he took his seat in Congress.
What is most despicable about Paul Ryan is that he has had the nerve to write the House Budget for three years in a row. He is brazen and heartless in advocating in that budget for a $5 trillion dollar reduction in federal spending over the next ten years! The House passed his budget three years in a row and three years in a row the Democratically controlled Senate has let it die in the upper house, without ever proposing a budget of their own.
What is wrong with this guy? If Congress were to cut $5 trillion dollars from the budget, where would the President get the money to give $500 million dollars to a bankrupt Solyndra? Or $200 million dollars for bankrupt Energy 1? Or $11 billion dollars to illegal aliens filing INIT, non-resident tax returns to claim $11 billion big ones in child tax credits, even for their children living in Mexico?
I don't know. Paul Ryan seems heartless to me. He keeps wanting to cut government waste, he keeps wanting to put a halt to those big GSA conventions in Vegas and, worse, he keeps trying to make people look at that $16.7 trillion dollar deficit! The guy's no fun at all!
Who wants a numbers cruncher? Who wants someone spoiling the party by showing folks the bill? Nothing will spoil a party quicker than sending the host the bill before the party's over.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.paddyRanger | Sep 01, 2012, 01:52 PM EDT
Make my day punk...racist failed businessman...haha go ahead try ...
seanomelb | Aug 31, 2012, 07:59 PM EDT
Ride off into the sunset with your "deranger" Clint
paddyRanger | Aug 30, 2012, 10:50 AM EDT
Wrong again seaney moron, YOU are the racist
seanomelb | Aug 29, 2012, 07:25 PM EDT
I knew you were racist Paddy me boy.Bush couldn't blame poppy or Reagan and Clinton left a trillion dollars in the bank which Bush squandered. Deary me it's like taking candy from a baby..Briano Obama's aunt is responsible for herself after all that's the GOP mantra,so you want your cake and eat it??
McNamara31 | Aug 29, 2012, 07:23 PM EDT
paddyRanger Bush had more class? When? Where? You've got to be jokin..........
paddyRanger | Aug 29, 2012, 02:54 PM EDT
Mayolady ......what do you base that on "obama excelled in Havard Law school" if that were true, why is he spending millions on trying to prevent his records being released surely if it ....nobody is judging him on his colour, he is being judged on his lack of availability of his records, other sources say he is absent more than he was present.
paddyRanger | Aug 29, 2012, 02:41 PM EDT
Padraig8........what President balanced the Budget, Obama has not balanced anything. And to the cretin seaney boy you should read more yourself and learn something. the sub prime loan scandal which caused the housing market to collapse started under Clinton, Bush has just more class to blame everything on previous president unlike the useless obama
Mayolady | Aug 29, 2012, 12:39 PM EDT
As I understand it, Ryan always had a government job, not in the private sector, except to moonlight as a student. One reason OBama was given a great job as a professor is he is highly intelligent. Ryan is not his equal in education or ability. OBama excelled in Harvard law school and according to a guy who wrote in to a newspaper recently who went to Harvard with him, the professors always called on him to recite a case because his answers and thoughts were so penetrating. The writer suggests that OBama got in Harvard because of race. Evidently he excelled and was at the top of his class and editor of Law Review. Racism surfaced in this article quite clearly. Let's not judge a man unworthy because he is black. Mayo Lady
BrianO | Aug 29, 2012, 12:17 PM EDT
@ Rhuidhri, So who are you for? The man who started his own business, through his brains and ability, or Obama who relies on his ideology, ie. marshall, ayers, wright, alinsky. A clear choice emerges but Obama hides behind the pro business rhetoric, what is he ashamed of?
BrianO | Aug 29, 2012, 12:09 PM EDT
Seano since Obama is so caring, why does his aunt still live in subsidized housing on my dime in Boston, maybe he could let loose with a dollar or two and pay for his own family to get ahead, Instead he will preach to us about being our brothers keeper and such, Hmmm brothers keeper.
Padraig8 | Aug 29, 2012, 10:47 AM EDT
Just so you wont get it wrong again ill put it in the body of this comment,the post paddyranger said he did not write is mine PADRAiG8 i am the dual citizen who is PROUD to be a Democrat in the US and a Republican in Ireland PaddyRanger blames a problem on the President who balanced the Budget? Not Smart Paddy. Your msg sucks Tiocfaidh Ar La (padraig8)
seanomelb | Aug 28, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT
Paddy me boy read Rhuaidhri's piece below and you might learn something
Rhuaidhri | Aug 28, 2012, 05:21 PM EDT
Figures that the one comment that gets posted is the one I didn't want posted, must have hit tab by accident. To finish my thought somewhat more coherently. Personally I much prefer a man who makes in through life on his own brains and ability to one who makes it off the blood, sweat and ability of others. It comes down to a choice between two men who both know the rich getting richer ain't going help most of us. One guy wants to do something about the injustice of that while the other wants to hoodwink people using their dreams. He hopes that people will believe that someday they too will all be as wealthy as him and so taxing rich folks like him is only taking money out of their own pockets in the long run. I hope most people are smart enough to realise that the sums don't add up, with an ever smaller percentage having ever more of the wealth if they don't pay more taxes then that means more and more of the tax burden falls on the people who have less ability to pay it. If he can't sell you that fantasy he then tries to sell you a fantasy that by being richer and having control over all that wealth they can give it out much better than a government could. Sounds plausible but I'm a big believer in actions speaking louder than words. When you look at actions you find that even though these folks pay less taxes as a percentage of their income most of them give so little away than if you add taxes and charity they still give less as a percentage of what they earn than most average folks give away each year never mind most average folks pay more taxes than they give charity. There are very few rich folks who give away anything close the kind of percent average folks pay in taxes. Those few rich people are generally the ones who say rich folks should pay more taxes. Romney and his kind are pure and simple just plain greedy but are smart enough to realise they have to dress up that greed as something else. Don't be hoodwinked any more I beg of you.
Rhuaidhri | Aug 28, 2012, 02:44 PM EDT
Funny thing one thing the article fails to mention is that he isn't the guy guy running for president either. Nope that guy is one named Mitt Romney who ain't Irish and if Obama is is privledged just what is Mitt Romney? Personally I much prefer a man who makes in through life on his brains and ability to one who makes it off the blood and sweat ability of others especially when the choice comes down to a guy who knows that the rich getting richer ain't going to help most of us wwealth and how he came about it
EphraimKibbey | Aug 27, 2012, 10:47 PM EDT
The current national debt equals that left by Cheney/Bush included in their budgets and that left by them for the two wars that they fought "OFF THE BOOKS" and only recognised later by the Obama administration. Since then, the only things that Obama has added are the Stimulous Bill at about 2 trillion and about a trillion more in Obama tax cuts. I guess you could lay the 3 trillion from the continuation of the Cheney/Bush Tax Cuts at Obama's door since he did sign their extension but that was sort of pushed on him by the GOP. The Affordable Health Care Act will begin cutting the deficit in 2014 according to the CBO. Had the congress agreed to the Obama/Boehner agreement instead of swallowing the "poison pill" of across the board cuts, we would be on our way to knocking 4 trillion off the deficit right now. When the Cheney/Bush tax cuts go away in January, the deficit will start disappearing and the across the board cuts will speed things right along. Compare that with the Ryan Plan that does not reduce the deficit untill 2040. If the deficit is your primary concern, join the Democrats in Off the Cliff - A leap of Faith!
paddyRanger | Aug 27, 2012, 10:12 PM EDT
Not missing any point......you have not raised any intelligent point yet....anybody who understands economy knows the problem was LAID by Clinton..
seanomelb | Aug 27, 2012, 07:56 PM EDT
You miss the point as usual and you fail to understand why the debt tripled. Let us start with the debt left by Bush. Then you need to understand the "stimulus package" which saved the auto industry and the banks etc. and the global meltdown which started in '07 under bush's and some one had to have the guts and make the hard decisions. Your mob the GOP would rather a 1929 meltdown than save America from financial oblivion.
paddyRanger | Aug 27, 2012, 01:59 PM EDT
paddyRanger | Aug 26, 2012, 09:12 PM EDT Thanks Mcnamara31 and eiriamach funny thing as a dual citizen ..........This was not posted by me, someone else using my name, I would never lower myself to being a democrat in USA...
paddyRanger | Aug 27, 2012, 08:18 AM EDT
Seanomelb you are an utter cretin, to mention race does not make one a racist, you better learn what racist means, I pointed out that people who vote for Obama PURELY because of his race are the racists...and people like you are racist for always trying to play the race card. As for explaining it in simple language for a moron like you to understand, what don't you understand about Tripling a debt, it means you take a debt and make it LARGER, you understand the word larger, bigger, greater than it was before, how about you explain "macro" economics tripling a debt makes it better ...
paddyRanger | Aug 26, 2012, 09:12 PM EDT
Thanks Mcnamara31 and eiriamach funny thing as a dual citizen when in Ireland im Republican but in the US i am a Democrat. We should not have to fight these people all of our lives but some things are necessary to keep any semblance of a good life, i am thankfull for good men and women in the past years who were elected and supported the populace, but like anything else once some people are successfull they turn thier back on the ones who helped them and refuse to help other human beings,its the (let em eat cake syndrome) so look at History and it will not lie Republicans are allways for bootstraps Democrats want to first help you get Boots.
OMAR | Aug 26, 2012, 05:48 AM EDT
he was voted " biggest brown noser" in high school. His kids have Waspy names, he probably joined the Freemasons and thinks Catcher in the Rye is a profound book..
OMAR | Aug 26, 2012, 05:44 AM EDT
can't bring myself to vote for anybody who looks like Eddie Munster..What was he up to 40 years ago ?
seanomelb | Aug 26, 2012, 12:25 AM EDT
If you are such a learned fellow explain the reasons for the "tripling of the debt" in simple economic terms and I know it has to be simple.BTW you brought colour into the debate not I.
McNamara31 | Aug 25, 2012, 08:03 PM EDT
Padraig8 So well said and true! Keep fighting the good fight.
paddyRanger | Aug 25, 2012, 10:05 AM EDT
Ah I get it I tried imagining how a retard like yourself comes to the conclusion I said something racist "plenty of Americans voted for Obama purely for his looks and skin color.".........the people who voted for Obama purely because of who he is and his skin colour are the racists...not someone pointing it out. You should go back to school and learn what the word means
paddyRanger | Aug 25, 2012, 10:00 AM EDT
seanomelb.....pathetic failure at it again "macro economics" eh...good one ... that's your excuse for tripling a nations debt excellent, and you clearly have no clue what the word racist means...suggest you go back and do your own schooling
seanomelb | Aug 24, 2012, 11:57 PM EDT
paddy dick head ranger you need schooling in macro economics (if you know what that means) and you're a racist to boot
lokionline | Aug 24, 2012, 02:52 PM EDT
Paul Ryan thinks poor people are responsible for their own misfortunes and deserve to live lives of quiet despair. He also thinks women should have no control over unwanted pregnancies. He thinks that an acorn is a tree and should have all the rights of a mature oak and Romney would have this man a heartbeat from being president!?
eiriamach | Aug 24, 2012, 02:48 PM EDT
Bravo, Padraig8! Thanks for your service and for your wisdom.
GuinnessGrrl | Aug 24, 2012, 01:25 PM EDT
This is the funniest column I've read in a long time, my sides are hurting from laughing so hard!
paddyRanger | Aug 24, 2012, 11:30 AM EDT
And "most Americans are not swayed by a pretty face any more without looking at the mind and the shared moral values"......absolute garbage plenty of Americans voted for Obama purely for his looks and skin color.
paddyRanger | Aug 24, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT
Eschetic....this perpetual liberal myth you peddle that the "swift boating" of Kerry was wrong, when facts are they were correct, 98 veterans against 2 that Kerry managed to scrounge up, said the truth, Kerry was a liar and a WALT he awarded himself his purple hearts even when his superior told him to forget about getting a splinter in his leg from his OWN NEGLIGENT discharge, he shot himself, so there has not been 20 years of nonstop right wing swift boating, but there has been plenty of lies coming from the left and right now it is reaching a crescendo !!
Eschetic | Aug 24, 2012, 11:17 AM EDT
No reasonable person criticizes the energy used and challenges faced by the Congressman growing up, even if it doesn't take a great cynic to note how this writer glosses over Ryan coming from far more secure money than the President (even if his family wisely required him to work for his living) or tries to turn Ryan's lack of actual accomplishments or attempts to publish as some kind of positive virtue! If it were not for Ryan's distorted world view and actual attempts to impose a highly flawed, discredited 19th Century morality on his world in the legislation he has championed, he would be a very attractive candidate. Fortunately, after nearly 20 years of nearly non-stop right wing lies and "Swift Boating" distortions, most Americans are not swayed by a pretty face any more without looking at the mind and the shared moral values - or lack thereof - behind it. If they were, Sarah Palin might be running for her second term as Vice President now rather than trying to convert her brief public service into the greatest financial opportunities - just like the 19th Century pols whose ideals this crew want to restore to respectability.
Padraig8 | Aug 24, 2012, 10:24 AM EDT
Mousemess got it right we are not afraid of Ryan just the ignorant people who know nothing about Voting,like milfordmama. For your info i am 88 been voting since after i returned home in 1945 after WW2 and i can tell you its been an uphill battle to survive these Republican jerks who voted to take every thing away from me and voted NOT to help me at all in any Legislation that was for the common good( Social Security,and other social programs) i lived through the depression and the social programs that FDR started were responsible for feeding me,if it were up to the Republicans i would have starved. That is why i vote in ALL elections every year to keep the moneyed people from passing laws to hurt me and others. WAKE UP, being IRISH is NOT a guarantee that Paul Ryan is OK. I have met many irishmen and irish descendants who werent worth a fig i also know many NON IRISH who are great Men and Women. its what thier philosophy is that counts lots of hippocrits go to church and then treat thier fellow man terribly afterward.
Mousemess | Aug 24, 2012, 01:13 AM EDT
If this contributor were not ashamed of the lengthy article he or she contributed, said person would have proudly put his or her name on it.
Mousemess | Aug 24, 2012, 01:06 AM EDT
Peterson, We liberals are not scared of Ryan. We know he is totally wrong for the US, wrong on women and their health issues, wrong on gay people, wrong on Medicare, wrong on tax cuts for billionaires who don't need them, wrong on the Affordable Health Care Act etc. And we just don't think we need Romney/Ryan in the White House.
peterson | Aug 23, 2012, 06:28 PM EDT
Ryan is a real breath of fresh air, has Irish blood and the liberals are really scared of him and Romney !! Obama is destroying the once great country who was leading the war against tyranny and now the USA has a tyrannical President !!
milfordmama | Aug 23, 2012, 06:07 PM EDT
Paul Ryan is a breath of fresh air. Even if he and Romney don't win this election, someday the American voter will wake up and elect him president (after we have fallen off the financial cliff perhaps.) He tells it like it is, he is honest and open and not your typical slimey politician like Obama who panders to each group just to get votes. I think he is the best thing to come out of this campaign (and I am 66 yrs. old and worry more about my kids and grandkids' futures than I do about myself.)
paddyRanger | Aug 23, 2012, 05:40 PM EDT
Oh my the idiot seanomelb strikes again.........obama saved America from financial oblivion......how did he do that cretin by TRIPLING the debt, he has put America in debt far larger than any other president...only in the eyes of a moron can tripling the debt be saving from financial oblivion......
seanomelb | Aug 23, 2012, 05:34 PM EDT
It would appear ed is embarrassed to put his name to the above bleeding heart piece of drivel. If it were not you ed who is the coward?? Obama saved America from financial oblivion and the fools close their eyes.
PiperMac52 | Aug 23, 2012, 04:25 PM EDT
Right on there. Ryan is a stand-up character whether you agree with his politics or not. He is a practicing catholic, good family man who loves his Country and believes in those founding principals which Obama seems to despise. Obama on the other hand spent his entire life in the company of Marxists/Socialists/Communists and has admitted his disdain for our Constitution. He is an enigma with many unanswered questions regarding his past. The Media has given him a pass and failed to vet him, while they go after Ryan on every detail.
MegK311 | Aug 23, 2012, 02:06 PM EDT
FastEddy, I agree Paul Ryan is no Obama and I am also thankful. It's time for Obama to go into retirement.
FastEddy | Aug 23, 2012, 01:18 PM EDT
LOL ... "So who is Paul Ryan --- he’s certainly not Barack Obama ...", thankfully.
Scrivner | Aug 23, 2012, 01:17 PM EDT
Finally! IC has found a thinkning contributor who also can write well. As to being annonymous, he or she is just following a long literary tradition.
MegK311 | Aug 23, 2012, 01:02 PM EDT
WOW great article. There are many issues besides abortion that should be considered in this election. I will not vote on just one issue I will consider all the issues and we do have to give serious thought as to how we vote. Paul Ryan is an excellent choice to be our next VP. Good luck Paul Ryan.
Mousemess | Aug 23, 2012, 12:38 PM EDT
St. Paul Ryan who could do no wrong. He just wants to kill Medicare by turning it into a worthless voucher scheme so He can give big tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. He wants to reinstate the wretched Don't Ask Don't Tell that was repealed, dead and buried, and wants to saddle this country with a marriage discrimination amendment to the US constitution. He wants to deprive women of the right to an abortion even in case of rape and incest. Some time before, he wanted to outlaw it even if the mother's life was in danger from her pregnancy. Paul Ryan represents some of the most extreme of the GOP and should not be VP.
eiriamach | Aug 23, 2012, 12:37 PM EDT
Wow! Now I know what they mean by something "going viral"! I just put another sentence from this article in the Google search engine, and it returned 573,000 hits.
eiriamach | Aug 23, 2012, 12:26 PM EDT
This article, word for word, is published all over the Internet. Google any sentence, and you'll get more than a thousand hits. It's standard GOP Public Relations fodder. The "contributor" is most likely the Republican National Committee. If I were IC, I wouldn't want to admit that!
plynchhayes | Aug 23, 2012, 11:13 AM EDT
Just a question - if Paul Ryan has been such an exemplary Congressman, why not leave him there to do what he does best? We all know the VP has no real power, is maily a back-up spokesman, etc.
mairint | Aug 23, 2012, 10:34 AM EDT
Excellent observations. Finally IC has someone there who sees the light! American needs a man who has pulled himself up by the boot strings and has brains as well. Enough of claiming great accolades of 'being to Harvard' etc. and stepping into the White House without earning it in reality rather than hype. Yes, Ryan seems so far to tick all the boxes and in addition does not believe in killing off future American citizens before they can kick a football. Feminazis won't like him - but they are a dying breed anyway. Good luck to you Mr. Ryan.
pilib04 | Aug 23, 2012, 10:07 AM EDT
"By Irish Central contributor"???? Does that mean someone from the Robme-Ryan Campaign paid to have this article inserted in Irish Central? Or the writer just wanted to remain anonymous?
pilib04 | Aug 23, 2012, 10:05 AM EDT
Paul Ryan is the guy who believes that women who came up with the new distinction "forcible" rape. Any idea where Akin got the idea for "legitimate" rape? Oh, yeah, his best bud, Ryan.
jflanagan | Aug 23, 2012, 10:03 AM EDT
Someone who knows that if you keep spending and putting off fiscal responsibilty to future generations there will be worse poverty, suffering and economic collapse. The President and Harry Reid keep kicking the problem down the road, promising future spending cuts after they leave office. There is no guarantee future politicians will honor those promises, just as today's politicians have not lived up to the spending cuts promised under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Even President George W. Bush didn't live up to the future cuts promised to his father. Cut now with small but steady cuts down the road and my grandchildren and great granddaughters will be much better off when they become taxpayers, instead of wards of the state.
Sarge524 | Aug 23, 2012, 09:49 AM EDT
Gives purpose to this year's election and a clear difference the voters can see.
tom/peggy | Aug 23, 2012, 09:37 AM EDT
I believe if elected he'll be an excellent Vice President.