Paul Ryan's Change of Heart

How could you question the sincerity
of those baby blues?

Like all of us, Paul Ryan is entitled to change his mind.  In fact, it's commendable - politicians should be willing to change their opinions based on new evidence and arguments, and one of the (many) issues in Washington is their collective refusal to do so.  Unfortunately, some skeptics out there are questioning the timing of his conversion to fiscal responsibility.  Personally, I think that his conversion on January 20th, 2009 was real and genuine, and a total coincidence that it happened on the same day that President Obama moved into the White House.

Those who think that his change of heart was politically motivated inevitably point to his voting record to justify their skepticism.  Sure, he voted for every single increase in defense spending that came to the floor over the last decade, and yes, those increases put another $1.9 trillion into the deficit.  But that's defense spending, something that was vital and necessary for the safety of the country in a decade when we were embroiled in several wars and additional military actions in far-flung corners of the world.

Likewise, voting for the Bush tax cuts and others increased the deficit by $2.5 trillion, but that money was pumped back into the economy, trickling down and causing unprecedented economic growth and prosperity for all that was well worth the price tag.

Skeptics are willing to excuses these votes - after all, what's more conservative than military spending and tax cuts?  But what has people asking questions is his support for TARP ($700 billion), the auto bailout ($80 billion), and increases to Medicare ($270 billion).

Well, when asked why a fiscal conservative would vote for TARP, Ryan clearly explained his position:

I believe we were on the cusp of a deflationary spiral which would have created a Depression. I think that’s probably pretty likely. If we would have allowed that to happen, I think we would have had a big government agenda sweeping through this country so fast that we wouldn’t have recovered from it. So in order to prevent a Depression and a complete evisceration of the free market system we have, I think it was necessary.

See?  He only voted for the spending for TARP because if he didn't vote for the big government agenda and bailout, it would have inevitably led to bigger government agenda and even larger bailouts.  His votes for "socialist" agendas like bailing out banks and the auto industry prevented the "complete evisceration of the free market system that we have."

Looks like the turning point was right
around the beginning of 2009....

Thank goodness that Paul Ryan personally voted to add $6.8 trillion to the deficit.  Just think of how much higher the deficit would have been if he had voted against all that spending!