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GOP Picks Paul Ryan -- Yes, That Paul Ryan -- For Debt Commission

Ben Frumin | March 12, 2010, 1:27PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Debt Commission, Jeb Hensarling, Paul Ryan

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House Minority Leader John Boehner has picked Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI), Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) to sit on President Obama's 18-member deficit-reduction panel.

That's right -- Paul Ryan of the entitlement-slashing GOP shadow budget. And Jeb Hensarling, the Republican who suggested on Hardball last month that we should privatize Social Security.

Ryan's selection is quite a step for Republicans to take -- especially considering the great lengths they've gone to in recent weeks to distance themselves from his plan. Naming Ryan to a commission charged with coming up with ideas for reducing the nation's deficit would seem to be an endorsement of sorts of Ryan's ideas -- and also seems to undermine GOP attempts to distance the party from Ryan's slash-and-privatize plan.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has also named Sens. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) to the debt commission.

Late Update: Doug Thornell, spokesman to Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), sends over this statement on the GOP announcements.

It speaks volumes about the GOP agenda for America that the three House Republican members named to the Deficit Commission strongly support privatizing Social Security and all voted last year to dismantle Medicare as we know it.

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Matt Jones

March 12, 2010 1:57 PM

What a perfect representative for the GOP to send - he has no ideas that will *actually* reduce the deficit, just like the rest of his colleagues.

Maybe he can float his "feed the homeless to the hungry" plan...

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bluemeanie

March 12, 2010 2:11 PM

Smart choice, now that the Tax Policy Center has eviscerated his Roadmap to Catastrophe. Increase taxes on 90% of Americans, nuke Medicare and Social Security, and explode the deficit -- all for yet another "trickle down" tax cut. The song remains the same.

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RhodaA

March 12, 2010 2:24 PM

Must Read Article on Paul Ryan:
"Paul Ryan And The Republican Vision" by
Jonathan Chait , March 11, 2010

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/paul-ryan-and-the-republican-vision

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Impishparrot

March 12, 2010 3:13 PM in reply to RhodaA

From the article in your link:

"I find this claim highly unconvincing, as does the well-respected Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which has a report showing that Ryan's plan would dramatically increase the budget deficit."

Leave it to the Republicans to appoint a guy to fix the balance the budget whose ideas increase the deficit. Duh? Is there any Republican that can actually add and subtract? The GOP's Wall Street accounting for two wars, a 'donut' hole, and two tax cuts is part of what got us in the mess this panel's supposed fix. Enjoy this recession while we've got it...the coming 2nd Great Depression is going to be a dozy when another GOP 'trickle down' scheme finally drowns our economy.

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Economides

March 12, 2010 2:51 PM

Why did the republican bother sending 6 people. They all have only 1 point of view: No taxes ever.

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hollywood

March 12, 2010 2:57 PM

Ryan fancies himself the new Reagan. Freakishly obsessed with making the filthy rich even filthy richer and smugly lecturing the vast majority of hard working people on how they just do not work hard enough. I understand he has a complete room in his house devoted to Ayn Rand and her trickle down religious views. Ryan gets naked in front of his giant Ayn Rand on the Crucifix alter and plucks out his ample body hairs one by one each time wailing "begone parasite! make my body shiny solid gold" ...... whatever that means ......

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hey norm

March 12, 2010 3:34 PM

What is with these guys? Rand's empty, dead-ended philosophy was debunked decades ago. It is a philosophy that only appeals/applies to rich white guys who find it impossible to form their own thoughts. Oh wait...that's what's with these guys.

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Matt Jones

March 12, 2010 5:12 PM in reply to hey norm

Ob. quote (source unknown, but funny):

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

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