Paul Ryan: The Bipartisan Myth

      One myth that is being propagated about Ryan is that he has a history of bipartisanship and compromise. Nothing can be further from the truth. Mr. Ryan has some of the most extremely conservative ideas you can imagine, not just on the budget either-wait to you hear what he thinks about abortion.

     "In almost 13 years as a congressman, Ryan has proposed just two bills that have passed and become law, one of which involved renaming a post office in his district. It’s a low number by any standard, but particularly for a chairman of the powerful Budget Committee. He has introduced many bills, including a Social Security privatization measure in 2004 so far-reaching that the Bush White House called it “irresponsible.”

      "Statistics peg Ryan as a staunch conservative. According to the DW-Nominate metric, Ryan’s voting record makes him almost as conservative as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and more conservative than Rep. Allen West (R-FL). By the same measurement, Ryan is the most right-wing member of Congress to be selected for vice president since at least 1900, according to data analyzed by the New York Times."

     http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/the-myth-of-paul-ryan-the-bipartisan-leader.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

     That's right, Alan West is to the Left of Paul Ryan. We should ask him how many communists he believes are in Congress. As he's more conservative than West maybe he thinks the number's higher. Ryan is also very staunchly prolife, I mean in the territory of Bob McDonnell and vaginal probes territory. Indeed, maybe even worse than McDonnell.

     He actually supports the hideous personhood amendment. However, that's only the tip of the iceberg. His exterme views on abortion are truly hair raising.

     http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/11/paul-ryan-s-extreme-abortion-views.html
   
     "The Romney campaign’s lone evidence that Ryan is a bipartisan leader amounts to a vague blueprint he co-wrote with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) late last year that mirrors key elements of his Medicare plan. Wyden voted against Ryan’s budget and said Romney’s characterization of their work was dishonest.

     "Governor Romney is talking nonsense. Bipartisanship requires that you not make up the facts,” Wyden’s office said in a statement. “I did not ‘co-lead a piece of legislation.’ I wrote a policy paper on options for Medicare. Several months after the paper came out I spoke and voted against the Medicare provisions in the Ryan budget. Governor Romney needs to learn you don’t protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments sure won’t help promote real bipartisanship.”

        What's striking is how very few bills Ryan has passed-bipartisan or for that matter, even on partisan, party lines. In 13 years on the job in Congress he has passed two bills. These bills are not exactly earth-shattering either:

      "After a year and a half on the job, Ryan reached a milestone: He passed his first bill. It renamed a post office."

      "Four years later, Ryan got another bill passed. It lowered the excise tax on the parts used to make arrows."

     "This is the sum total of Paul Ryan’s changes to U.S. code. After 2006, Ryan’s focus was on a committee — the Budget Committee — whose main job is to produce theoretical statements of policy, not actual law. He has not passed a law since."

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paul-ryan-republican-vice-presidential-candidate-has-a-complicated-record-with-little-compromise/2012/08/13/eb6f7378-e57c-11e1-8741-940e3f6dbf48_story.html

    Certainly tough based on his record to argue that Ryan is a guy who "gets things done." It's notable that not only does he have no actually bipartisan success stories, but that Republicans haven't passed any of his theories about the budget in actual legislation on a party basis.

    Another narrative of Ryan's that needs to be taken with a big grain of salt is the idea that Ryan has had a change of heart after the profligate spending in the Bush years. The reality is that he was doing the same thing in 2005 as he's doing now-trying to dismantle the New Deal.

   In 2005 he was trying to dismantle Social Security via private accounts. This was too much for even George W. Bush. Now he''s trying to privatize Medicare via block grants to the states. The leopard has never changed his spots. What we have in Ryan is what we have in Romney: old wine, new bottles.