Paul Ryan had a serious lapse in judgment when voted to tax the AIG bonuses.
Now, he's voicing regret on that vote.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Rep. Paul Ryan said Thursday he regrets his recent vote to tax the bonuses received by AIG employees, adding that he would have voted against it had he known it was unconstitutional.
First, Ryan should have made a more informed vote. He should have found out if something as radical as that tax move was constitutional.
Second, Ryan should have voted against the tax anyway.
..."Now that I know, which I didn't know at the time, that this is unconstitutional, I wouldn't have voted the same way," he said during a taping of C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" Thursday. "You rush this thing to the floor. Nobody had time to review it."
Review it?
I didn't need to review anything. Immediately, when the Democrats floated the idea of taxing the bonuses, it seemed wrong to me.
I think that Ryan caved in to the mob mentality and the public anger rather than sticking to his principles. I wish he wouldn't try to make up excuses for casting a boneheaded vote. He should apologize and move on.
...Ryan voted to tax the bonuses last week, as did every Wisconsin House member but one. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls) voted against the measure, arguing it was unconstitutional and would eventually fail to recoup the bonus money.
I really admire Sensenbrenner. He was the only representative from Wisconsin to do the right thing.
From Politico:
Ryan blames confusion about the constitutionality of the plan on Democrats for rushing the bill through the House.
"You rush this thing to the floor. Nobody had time to review it," Ryan said on the C-SPAN program, adding that lawmakers "got conflicting advice on it" before the vote.
Conflicting advice?
Ryan has no one to blame but himself.
...But the conservative still agrees with the underlying principle behind the bill.
"The message was sent that should have been sent," Ryan said. "These bonuses were completely ridiculous. They rewarded failure."
That's not the message I got.
My take: The Congress is willing to manipulate the tax code to punish a targeted group of individuals.
That's scary. I don't like the direction the country is going. Very scary.
5 comments:
Paul Ryan is always "caving" to outside pressures. Whatever it takes to keep getting the GOP donors and voters supporting him. But things are happening too fast for him to keep track of his "priciples" from one day to the next.
You say you don't like the direction the country is going? How about how it was going for the past 8 years that got us stuck in this mess: Iraq a quaqmire, Afghanistan worse than ever, country bankrupt, BANKS bankrupt, unemployment up, jobs down, healthcare still broken, more dropouts, teen pregnancies and prisoners than before.
And NOW you start to show some concern?
First, Ryan is not ALWAYS caving.
Second, you're putting words in my mouth.
Why do you assume I was comfortable with the direction the country was going during the Bush administration?
Why do you assume that I didn't show concern?
Your assumptions are way off base.
Moreover, according to Obama, Iraq is not a quagmire. To the contrary, he touts the many successes, and has, in effect, declared "Mission Accomplished."
Obama has decided to escalate the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It's his war now.
Obama has a clueless, tax cheat treasury secretary that sends the stock market plummeting when he opens his mouth.
Obama is willing to shred the Constitution out of political expediency.
Obama is engaging in a power grab that's unlike anything we've ever seen before.
He has broken promise after promise, and he's only been in office just over two months.
Bottom line: I don't like it.
We find that in this post that even we Republicans eat our own when they try break from the party line to stand up for the real needs of their constituents. Ryan's "bid," for POTUS isn't getting off to that great of a start.
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2009/03/paul-ryan-throws-poisoned-t-bone.html
Now for your other points:
"Moreover, according to Obama, Iraq is not a quagmire. To the contrary, he touts the many successes, and has, in effect, declared "Mission Accomplished."
I agree, Iraq WAS a quagmire until Obama arrived on the scene.
"Obama has decided to escalate the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It's his war now."
He is adding troops to train indigenous forces. We'll see how that goes, along with aid and diplomacy. Last item didn't exist in last administration.
"Obama has a clueless, tax cheat treasury secretary that sends the stock market plummeting when he opens his mouth."
I thought you liked people to stay on topic, Paul Ryan. Otherwise you are giving the TS too much credit for affecting daily machinations of Wall Street.
"Obama is willing to shred the Constitution out of political expediency."
Random generalization, no example to back your point, but have you forgotten "national security," wire-tapping.
"Obama is engaging in a power grab that's unlike anything we've ever seen before."
Not since rank deregulation of the banking industry, anyway, or starting a war on false premises.
"He has broken promise after promise, and he's only been in office just over two months."
His nose is the same length as far as I can tell. I only heard one promise, "change."
Geez, you really seem to be taking all this so personally. Its just politics and we lost the election.
from aka: anonymous2
"WE REPUBLICANS"?
From Anony2,
"WE REPUBLICANS?"
Yes, imagine it please, that there are Republicans who do not hold every extreme, intractible and idiotic view foisted upon us by the fringe right. We have kids, we work, we have fine, upstanding, hard working Democratic Party neighbors who are a hell of a lot like us and would also like to see progress toward solutions that work for all of us and bring some common sense to the way our country works and gives it a chance to survive at all.
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