Rep. Ryan: Republicans can’t play the ‘villain’ in Obama’s ‘morality play’

Loading

Jonathan Easley @ The Hill:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Saturday warned that President Obama was working to delegitimize the Republican Party, and urged conservatives not to fall into the president’s trap by playing the villain.

“[Obama] needs to delegitimize the Republican Party—and House Republicans, in particular,” Ryan told conservatives at the National Review Institute Summit in Washington, D.C. “He’ll try to divide us with phony emergencies and bogus deals. He’ll try to get us to fight with each other—to question each other’s motives—so we don’t challenge him.

“If we play into his hands, we will betray the voters who supported us—and the country we mean to serve. We can’t let that happen. We have to be smart. We have to show prudence.”

Prudence in picking political battles and caution in governing – characteristics that were not trademarks of Republicans in the 112th Congress – were central to Ryan’s speech.

Ryan used the ‘fiscal-cliff’ deal struck at the final hour as an example of the need to relinquish some principles by embracing imperfect legislation to score a modest victory.

“That means we’ll face some tough moments—like the fiscal cliff,” Ryan said. “I know we all didn’t see eye to eye on that vote, but here’s how I saw it… President Obama got less revenue than the Speaker offered in the first place. In short, there was no way we’d get a better deal.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) faced a revolt among some rank and file for negotiating with the administration, but he had Ryan’s support for the final deal. Ryan on Saturday defended his vote.

“That’s not to hide from the fact that this bill wasn’t perfect. We wanted to keep taxes low for everyone. We wanted to cut spending. But this bill had to pass. Otherwise, every single taxpayer would have paid higher taxes. And our economy would have gone into a nosedive. Once I came to that conclusion, my decision was simple: If you think a bill has to pass, then you vote for it.”

Read more

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

It’s the marriage of the MSM and the Democrats that allow the GOP to be portrayed to the great masses of low information voters as the villains.

Until the Republican leadership begins to call out the media on their full-throated cheer-leading for the Obama administration, this will continue.

Media consumers must be made to understand that they are not receiving anything approaching truth from ABCBSNBCNNPRPBS. Most of the media is in the tank!

The GOP needs a good PR spokeman. Good arguments, but no real good presenter.

the fact is that THE ECONOMY IS ALREADY IN A NOSE DIVE,
HOW LOWER CAN YOU GO NOW.
YOU NEED TO PUT MORE AUTHORITY EQUAL TO WHAT OBAMA SPEECH PUT HIS AUTHORITY,
THAT’S WHY HE GET THE CROWD TO FEEL SECURE AND BELIEVE HIS SPEECH EVEN IF IT’S ALL LIES,
I firmly believe that MITT ROMNEY REFUSE TO GO AGAINST HIS RELIGION BY TAKING ON OBAMA
AT HIS OWN SPEECH AND DEFEAT HIM ON HIS OWN WAY OF ACCUSING AND DENIGRATE HIS OPONANT VICIOUSLY MADE HIM A MONEY MONSTER AS HE PREPARE EARLYER BY PUNCHING ON THE WALL STREET RICHS PREPARING THE ROAD FOR MITT ROMNEY ARRIVAL ALREADY DEFEATED BY OBAMA AND REID FOUL MOUTH AND HIS MEDIAS.
PAUL RYAN THE LOW TONE IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR THE THUGS, YOU HAVE TO SING ON THE SAME NOTE, THEN YOU’LL GET THE ATTENTION OF THE CIVILIANS BY EXPOSING THEIR FALURES ON AND ON TIRELESLY.
LOUD AND CLEAR FOR THE COMMON OF THE MORTAL TO LISTEN.

I used to be a huge Paul Ryan fan but I cannot agree with his reasoning for voting yes on the fiscal cliff bill. I still believe that when it come to an understanding of the numbers there isn’t a smarter guy in the room.
Watching him dissect another politicians agrument on government spending/financials is truly impressive but you don’t abandon being a conservative because it’s the best deal you’re going to get, you stand up and be counted for doing what is right.