Ryan’s ready to rumble
Representative Paul Ryan gave a rousing speech describing the campaign ahead to block the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda.
Ryan’s a wonky guy. He can crunch the numbers with the best of them. But he’s also pretty eloquent, and in touch with what’s going on with Americans right now, as well as our proud history. It’s a good combination.
Ryan summarizes what’s been going on with Congress in a single sentence:
Has any Congress in history enacted, or tried to enact, so many foolish, squalid, and counterproductive programs?
On HCR, he’s a bit more verbose, but very pointed:
The drama that brought this creature to life was unedifying … part tragedy and part farce. Ethical categories went out the window. Never in history have the deliberations of Congress been subverted on this scale. The secrecy, the lack of transparency, the half-truths were stunning. The votes called at midnight … the 2 and 3 thousand page bills members of Congress had no time to read before the votes … the sordid backroom deals, the Cornhusker Kickback that shamed Nebraska, the Louisiana Purchase, the “Gator Aid” Medicare privilege for Florida, the additional Medicare dollars for states whose wavering representatives only yesterday were ferociously denouncing earmarks … the federal judgeship dangled for one lawmaker’s brother … the raid on the Medicare piggy bank … the lie that $250 billion for “doc fix” shouldn’t count as a Health Care cost … the double-counted deficit estimate scam that would land any accountant in jail … the proposed Slaughter rule that Congressmen not record a vote on a bill their constituents hate, just “deem” it passed and vote on the amendments…and to complete the farce, the phony Executive Order pretending not to fund abortions when the Health Care bill, as “the supreme law of the land,” does fund abortions. The level of political corruption to buy the votes for this debacle makes all past examples look penny ante by comparison.
And here is his warning. Those of you who follow the blogosphere will find its message familiar. But I think it’s brave of a mainstream Republican public figure such as Ryan to state it so boldly and clearly:
Self-government stands or falls on integrity, not only in those who represent you but in the enactment of law. This indecency soiled our freedom and embarrassed the democracy we promote in other nations. And this may not be the last of it. To enact its transformative agenda, this leadership employs the Machiavellian saying that the end justifies the means. America was born in a revolution against that whole idea. Soon it will be the norm.
The Constitution and the consent of the people are all that stand between limited and unlimited government power. Zealous ideologues with the best of intentions brush aside the limits on power in order to get whatever they believe is good for the people … no matter what the people believe. Our system of freedom can survive an assault, but it won’t survive if the people are frightened, or angry, or asleep at the switch. A great Democrat, President Andrew Jackson, once said: “eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty.” We can thank our current leaders at least for this: they have awakened the nation to the danger of taking self-government for granted.
Read the whole thing.
I too am among the many impressed with Rep. Ryan.
For any who are unaware, check out his A ROADMAP for AMERICA’S FUTURE
Well done, Congressman Ryan. I have checked out his Roadmap and it makes sense to me. That is why it has no chance of being used. Unless…….we can get a majority of fiscal conservatives elected to the House and Senate in November. We have to vote and we have to urge all our friends and their friends to vote. And so on down the line.
Paul Ryan for prez in 2012…
just looked at the roadmap and Crikey is that ever long. sadly my full-time occupation prevents me from reading the really important stuff. thank goodness for blogs.
for the record i am only in my back half of the twenties (some commenter on here suggested I run for president which is at least 8 years before i am even eligible) and i spend every free waking hour reading blogs trying to unlearn all the crap i learned in gawd-awful public school (screwl).
that is why we need you bloggers to keep blogging!! read the stuff we can’t read cuz we don’t have time!!!
Ryan sounds like he would be a good president of some country where only adults vote and sexiness is not considered the main qualification for high office.
The US is going to get what it deserves.
Worthwhile speech. This is how Republicans should talk: pointing out the Left’s deficiencies and offering constructive alternatives grounded in the country’s Founding principles. Thanks for the link. Bookmarked.
Good stuff! 🙂
> To enact its transformative agenda, this leadership employs the Machiavellian saying that the end justifies the means.
Not to suggest ANY disagreement in the purpose behind this statement, I’d just like to call attention to the inherent flaw in this hoary old adage.
The ends DO justify the means. ALWAYS.
But you don’t get to pick and choose among the ends as to which ones exist. You have to consider them — every single one of them — as a part of the results of the thing being done. How you weight them does provide some leeway for argument, but they key thing you need to grasp is that essential fact of the ends’ existence. By considering it you show that you’ve weighted it as a part of the results.
When testing a new drug, no, you don’t get to ignore the fact that 1 in 100 may die as a result of it. But neither do you get to ignore the flip-side, that 12 out of 100 won’t die as a result of it.
This special sort of “ends justify the means” is a typical big fat FAIL for liberal reasoning processes:
They look at people injured in Iraq, but ignore the people saved.
They look at those shot by guns, but ignore the people saved by simply waving one at a potential thug.
They look at those harmed by a new drug, but ignore those healed.
A rational person (i.e., 99.9999% of whom are NOT Lefties) recognizes that there is always a trade-off to be made:
As true Americans, we choose to let guilty men go free that innocents not suffer.
We allow some to fail so that many, many more might succeed.
We allow some to have “too much” in order that we not allow any one individual to decide “who has too much”. To allow some to say things they ought not to say in order that we not allow any one individual to decide who gets to say anything.
A trade-off.
No choices are made in a vacuum.
The ends DO justify the means, you just have to be aware of every single one of them, and be able to justify the total result, not just the ones you’ve decided are of interest to your purposes.
There is an excellent essay at Rubin Report relevant to Ryan’s observations; Why Intellectuals Hate Their countries.
Obama and friends are trying to establish a dictatorship of the bureaucrat here as they have in Europe, guaranteeing their class in control without the messy problem of counter-revolution.