Paul Ryan: The anti-Obama

At yesterday's House Budget Committee meeting, the show was once again stolen by Rep. Paul Ryan. Aided by an alarming graph that showed the spiking national debt, the young Wisconsin Republican eloquently railed against ObamaCare, tax-and-spend, deficit spending, and statism. "We have a great tidal wave of debt coming in this country," he warned. "This is how great empires fall." After Democrats hit back with the usual accusations that he was siding with the insurance companies over the American people, Ryan quipped, "Listening to these arguments, I'm reminded of a pyromaniac in a field of straw men."

This is nothing new for Ryan, who has proven himself to be Obama's most principled and damning critic. At the vaunted health care reform summit two weeks ago, Ryan waited his turn, then patiently explained to the president's face that he was lying about the deficit, calling the health care bill "worse than Bernie Madoff." Obama looked slighted, but responded to Ryan with deference. He didn't have much of a choice. The congressman had pulled the rug out from under the president.

Ryan is only 40, though he looks about ten years younger. Elected to the House in 1999, he quickly rose through the Republican ranks to become the Ranking Member on the House Budget Committee. It's easy to understand why. Ryan is a policy wonk, easy on the eyes and ears, and an unabashed small-government conservative. He has said he was inspired by Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, a polemic that explores progressives' roots in the fascist movements of the early 20th-century. Last year, he introduced an alternative budget that would have frozen discretionary spending for five years and completely privatized Medicare.

Ryan actually is everything that Obama pretends to be. While the president poses as a deep thinker, Ryan has run rings around him in policy discussions. While the president hides his arrogance underneath a faux charm, Ryan genuinely seems like a nice guy. While the president fakes being articulate in front of a Teleprompter, Ryan is one of the most eloquent speakers in Congress.

Ryan's name is already on the GOP's short list of presidential contenders. It's unlikely he'll make a move in 2012, as House members almost never seek the presidency. But it's a shame that he won't. As the president's political fortunes plummet, Ryan could be that fresh face that the GOP is looking for. We'd put his intellect and charm up against Obama's any day of the election season.

Update: Here's the video of Ryan attacking ObamaCare on the House Budget Committee yesterday.

Health care's last battle

After months of debate and demagoguery by the president, it all comes down to next week.

What's going on? The final push for Obamacare is about to begin. It starts on Monday, when the House Budget Committee will insert reconciliation instructions into the November House health care bill. By late Monday/early Tuesday, Budget will pass this bill and send it to the House Rules Committee, where Pelosi will change the language so that it matches the Senate bill. This is the final compromise legislation that may come to a vote on the House floor within weeks. "They're creating the shell," says Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Why move ahead when the votes aren't there? Pelosi hopes that launching the process will create enough momentum to flip Democrats her way. The clock is ticking. The speaker has two weeks before Congress breaks for Easter Recess. And the recess could kill off health care reform, since many of the wavering Democrats will get an earful from their constituents when they return home. Republicans expect Democrats to lose votes over the break.

This is health care harakiri and Pelosi has to know it. Yesterday the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the president must sign the Senate bill before any changes can be made. With their reconciliation sidecar derailed, dozens of Blue Dog House Democrats will have to vote on a bill larded up with wildly unpopular deals like the Cornhusker Kickback. The latest whip count by the progressive blog FireDogLake has 189 aye votes, 202 nay votes, and the rest undecided. With the public as outraged as they are, it's unlikely very many, if any, of those reps will swing yes. Pelosi is already facing an unlikely alliance of pro-choice Democrats, Hispanic Democrats, a couple of progressives, Blue Dogs, and unified Republicans. The only other solution is if Pelosi has one last procedural trick up her sleeve, but at this point it's hard to imagine what she could do.

Meanwhile Obama is barnstorming around the country trying to close the deal, but it isn't working. Last week Obama gave speeches in Pennsylvania and Missouri, but vulnerable Democratic congressmen refused to show up. This debate has raged for a year and the expenditure of political capital has been great. Next week the President will discover whether it was capital well spent.

Paul Ryan schools Obama on government statism

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is one of Obama's most eloquent critics. Here he tears the president limb from limb on the role of government in the marketplace.

Obama getting taken to task at health care summit

The first half of the president's vaunted bipartisan health care summit is over and something unusual is happening. Obama is getting his ass handed to him. Many were worried that the summit would be a huge political boon for the president. Instead, Republicans are hammering Obama who seems flustered without his teleprompter.

Probably the best take down was done by Sen. Tom Coburn. Coburn explained that 15% of health care costs in America could be saved if the government prosecuted fraud in Medicare. He pointed out that one out of every three Medicare dollars doesn't go towards patient care but towards bureaucracy and corruption. He noted that only 1% of health care fraud is in the private sector. He asked the president why he was planning more government-run health care when the current government-run health care is so full of waste. Obama's response? He rushed to agree with Coburn even though his bill does nothing to address these problem. It isn't about actually cutting costs, after all. It's about a government takeover.

There was more. Rep. Paul Ryan nailed the president for creating more regulations when regulations hurt mostly small businesses. Sen. Jon Kyl hit Obama for lying about whether the health care bill would increase premiums. (It would, as the CBO pointed out.) Sen. John McCain took the president to task for the secret deals made in the health care bill.

Obama's response? He tried to interrupt Republicans constantly. He complained about the time limits, even though a Democratic senator pointed out that no one had been told there were time limits. He whined that Republicans should talk about things they agree about rather than attacking the bill.

We'll have the videos up as soon as possible. Obama only held this farce of a meeting to create the illusion of bipartisanship on health care. Instead the president is coming off as pompous while Republicans tear him to pieces.