Lately we have been hearing much from and about Paul Ryan – former Republican Congressman of Wisconsin (1999-2019), former House Speaker (2015-2019), former vice-presidential nominee (2012) – about his opinion on Donald Trump and 2024, as well as thoughts about his own responsibility as board member of the parent company of Fox News caught in the latest of their ‘bombshell’ scandals.
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“I don’t think he’ll [Donald Trump] be our nominee… because we know we’re going to lose with him. He cost us the House in ’18, lost the White House in 2020, he cost us the Senate in ’20, he cost us the Senate again in ’22, and he cost us probably a good dozen House seats in 2022.”
“I don’t pledge fealty to a person, I pledge fealty to principles,” continued Ryan speaking to Wisconsin’s WISN-TV in a recent interview.
During an extended reveal of his principles in another interview, we see Paul Ryan not surprisingly dodging questions by conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee about his role as board member on Fox News’ parent company when “damning court documents showed that the right-wing network knowingly peddled election lies to its audience.”
The interview was posted on The Bulwark Podcast and reported on CNN:
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan was grilled last week over his decision to remain on the board of directors of Fox News’ parent company after damning court documents showed that the right-wing network knowingly peddled election lies to its audience.
In the interview, conducted by conservative commentator Charlie Sykes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and posted Tuesday on The Bulwark Podcast, Ryan was asked how he could associate himself with a company that “is pumping toxic sludge, racism, disinformation, and attacks on democracy.”
“Do you have any responsibility?” Sykes asked.
“I do. I have a responsibility to offer my opinion and perspective and I do that, but I don’t go on TV and do it, right. So I offer my perspective, my opinion, often,” Ryan replied. “I’ll just leave it at that.”
Sykes continued pressing Ryan.
“Is there a red line for you at any point where you said, “‘I cannot be associated with a company that does this’?”
Ryan declined to directly answer the question. Instead, Ryan said, “I want to see the conservative movement get through this moment. And I think Fox is a big part of the constellation of the conservative movement.”
“Is it the solution or the problem?” Sykes asked.
Ryan said he believed Fox News is “gonna have to be a part of the solution if we’re going to solve the problem in the conservative movement.”
For another reveal of Paul Ryan’s principles, continue reading/scrolling…
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WBW
History As Reminder: GOP and Jobs Edition
President Barack Obama presented his deficit reduction plan today (19 September 2011) which includes a modest increase in taxes on millionaires and billionaires, closes tax loopholes for profit-heavy corporations and is supported by the likes of billionaire Warren Buffet. The speech from the Rose Garden at the White House follows on the President’s jobs plan introduced at a joint session of Congress 12 days ago and legislation sent to congress one week ago.
The jobs plan has already been dismissed by the GOP leadership with Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) rejecting payroll tax cuts for middle class workers and families.
It is important to note that the President’s jobs plan includes much of what Republicans have demanded in the past and have voted for in the past; which begs the question, how far right does President Obama have to go to placate the Republicans.
Republicans and their media hacks – dredging out the tired, old meme – are calling the President’s populist deficit reduction plan ‘class warfare’. Closing loopholes for the largest corporations registering record profits and who pay no taxes and get tax rebates, according to Republicans is class warfare. But no tax breaks for workers, middle-class families and the poor is not class warfare. It is, according to Republicans, like Paul Ryan, that “we don’t have enough people paying taxes in this country” .
Professor Robert Reich, economist and political analyst who served in the Ford and Carter administrations and was President Clinton’s Labor Secretary from 1993 to 1997, said “it’s not warfare to demand the rich pay their fair share of taxes to bring down America’s long-term debt”.
Professor Reich continues: “After all, the richest 1 percent of Americans now takes home more than 20 percent of total income. That’s the highest share going to the top 1 percent in almost 90 years”.
In addition, said Professor Reich, the wealthiest Americans “now pay at the lowest tax rates in half a century – half the rate they paid on ordinary income prior to 1981″.
While Republicans in Congress and media punditry shout out that ‘the American people’ don’t approve of President Obama’s jobs or deficit reduction plans, the opposite is true.
Poll after poll clearly show that the average voter supports the President’s plans. A recent CNN/ORC survey said ‘a 43 percent plurality’ support the jobs plan. A Gallup survey showed 45 percent. And a CBS/New York Times poll on Friday showed “majorities supported all components of the jobs plan”.
The other tired, old tactic Republicans like to push when attempting to scare working people , that tax hikes hurt small businesses, is disproved, quite easily, in an article at Think Progress. That claim, according to the article, simply isn’t true: “as just 3 percent of people with any business income at all, from a business large or small, would be affected if the top two tax rates increase”.
ed note 1: I originally put an extended version of this piece together in September 2011 for a different publication.
ed note 2: link to CBS-NYT poll is removed because it is no longer active.
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“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” First Nations proverb.
