Paul Ryan and the Radicals

After the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate made news all over the world. This in itself is rather amusing considering the dislike and jealousy of America that exists in many parts of the world, but that’s a topic for another day.

Here are some examples of what was being said (translation is mine):

Aftonbladet (Swedish):

Ryan is a contested chairman of the Congress budget committee and drew a lot of attention when he a couple of years ago presented a new radical budgetvproposal that, among other things, would result in considerable cuts – if not liquidation – of all American safety-nets.

The Telegraph (British):

At the rally in Iredell County – a Republican stronghold, where 62 per cent voted for John McCain over Mr Obama – they received a rapturous welcome. Thousands more waited outside, in 32-degree sunshine.

Yet it remains to be seen whether the recruitment of this budget-cutting radical might attract undecided and moderate voters in swing states whose ballots will decide November’s poll.

 Der Spiegel (German):

It would be no less than a radical restructuring of America — a prospect that terrifies Democrats but sits well with a Republican base that has shifted to the right in recent years, including the Tea Party. Ryan is their hero. He’s a man who has adopted the language of the rebel, he’s a father with three kids, he’s down to earth and he’s from Wisconsin in the Midwest.

This description of Representative Paul Ryan, really the same as of any other prominent Republican, is easy to recognize from the American mainstream media. This description is now quickly being distributed by left-wing media all across the world in order to make Mr. Ryan look like the devil in disguise.

And it is all nonsense.

Mr. Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is one of the few people in Washington D.C. that has put forward a serious proposal that attempts to solve America’s fiscal problems while finding ways to reform and rescue almost bankrupt safety nets such as Medicare. How radical is Mr. Ryan’s plan? It is so radical that it doesn’t balance the budget until the year 2040, that is almost thirty years from now.

If Mr. Ryan is a radical, what is then considered moderate? Is it moderate to maintain an average deficit spending of 8-10%  of GDP. Is it moderate to borrow 40 cents out of every dollar that government spends? Is it moderate that debt held by the public quickly is approaching 100% of the nation’s GDP?

Progressives would probably answer those questions in the affirmative, but they are also the ones who believe that such an increase in government power is good and desirable. Mr. Ryan disagrees, and has spent the last few years attempting to educate both Congress and the American people on the disastrous consequences of such economic policies.

Mr. Ryan is no radical. Instead, he’s currently America’s best, and perhaps last, hope to preserve economic freedom for American citizens and maintain America as the world’s leading light.

Thomas is a university adjunct in political science and can be found on Twitter as @ThomasRatPol