Apparently Ryan Means Business

He spoke with the AmSpec and ATR.

...Ryan is clearly focused on getting control of trillions of dollars of expenditures not just billions. He wants "to go after the drivers of our debt" which means entitlement reform. In fact, he insists that the Republicans will actually make such proposals regardless of the political heat it will, inevitably, generate. This will necessitate a massive public education campaign to communicate to voters the causes and consequences of our current predicament.

Is entitlement reform a third-rail issue? "We aren't in the conventional moment," opined the Budget Chairman. Spending has escalated so much, the European sovereign debt crises are so visible, that "we are obliged to offer an alternative vision," notwithstanding the heated controversy which will result.

...The current Administration's push towards an American version of a kind of European social democracy, with cradle to grave entitlements, "is not who we are," said the Representative from Janesville, Wisconsin. His goal is to restore "an opportunity society with a safety net."

"At the end of the day, it is a cultural thing," claimed Ryan. The choice is between a government-subsidized hammock or an ethic of self-reliance. He framed the question as, "What kind of people do we want to be?"

...Chairman Ryan focused on the ultimate problem caused by the Obama Administration's seemingly endless spending and taxing with its inexorable negative impact on business investment and job creation. Citing the late Nobel Prize winner, Milton Friedman, he observed that "Today's deficits are tomorrow's tax increases." This self-evident truth, not lost on the nation's business leaders, creates uncertainty in the economy and depresses risk-taking and investment. To put it another way, Ryan said that spending and endless, massive borrowing "come at the expense of long-term growth."