‘Principled Conservatism:’ Paul Ryan Accumulated $343 Billion In Deficit in Three Years As House Speaker

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Dec 10, 2018
Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R.-Wis) (Screenshot from C-SPAN)

For the past few years, the “principled conservative” crowd has scoffed at President Donald J. Trump and his supporters, spreading the word that Trump is not nearly as conservative as GOP establishment hacks like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Don’t believe me? Here are some examples:

“This is the most I have ever liked Paul Ryan,” Tweeted “principled conservative”-in-chief Ben Shapiro during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Tweet shows a transcript of Ryan bashing Trump and his supporters with Jay Weber, a Milwaukee talk show host.

GOPe failure Bill Kristol, whose publication Weekly Standard will soon be defunct, Twitter a similar sentiment in May of 2016, claiming that Trump does not “share conservative values.” He, too, has often praised Ryan.

I don’t want it to seem like I enjoy gloating when impotent losers are wrong, but here are some facts (which certainly don’t care about Ben Shapiro’s feelings) that show just how conservative Ryan really was during his tenure as Speaker.

When he took over the role in 2015, the budget deficit at the end of the fiscal year was a cool $439 billion. At the end of fiscal year 2018 in September, it was $782 billion, an increase of $343 billion in three years. The man with the most power over the budget – supposedly a principled fiscal conservative – presided over a House that nearly doubled the federal deficit. Stellar work!

In 2012, Ryan bemoaned national debt as a guest on Sean Hannity’s radio show. Of a proposed budget, he said:

It means a debt crisis. He is also saying let’s add another $11 trillion on top of what he’s already done. If you take a look at that chart, the red tidal wave of debt. Sean, this is the most predictable economic crisis we have ever had in this country, it’s a debt crisis.

Our debt literally gets out of control and it ends the American dream as we know it. The Senate isn’t even doing a budget. So the president at least gave us a budget and that shows you a mountain of red ink, a debt crisis, more debt and the end of the American dream.

At the time, he was the Chairman of the House Budget Committee. But apparently he never really cared. Had he cared (or had a backbone), perhaps the debt would not have exploded under his watch.

If Ryan has proved anything it is that Americans ought to be wary of empty suits like Ryan, who parrot conservative talking points and promise to play nice with Democrats, and with a little bit of charisma, hypnotize the weak Republican crowd into holding them up as false idols.

Paul Ryan was a failure. America will be better off when he is gone from government.

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