State party chairman Mike Tate recently told the Associated Press that the party couldn’t find a credible candidate.
We have the free- spending, star of Michael Moores last movie(http://michaelmoore.com/books-films/capitalism-love-story) Paul Ryan representing Janesville, Kenosha, Racine and the rest of the 1st district of Wisconsin given a free pass to representing wall st at the expense of the people of WI yet again.
In paul ryans first campaign, he copied a GM check and handed it out saying he would protect them as long as he was in office. The reality is he has presided over the end of every single auto job. With such amazingly high unemployment in his district, he continually votes against extending cobra, unemployment benefits, etc… In the meantime, he runs around the country telling everyone he wants to get rid of social security and medicare.
YET the democratic party doesnt have a person to run against him? are you kidding me? How can the national/state democratic party not put a team on the ground and a candidate with some money to challenge him?
All they would need to do is get out on the ground and show people paul ryan’s record. The last election he spent close to 2 millions dollars in the last month, running ads that would make russ feingold proud. Of course he had no interest or inclination to do anything that he promised.
I truly believe that with a little money, a small team, and some footwork educating the 1st district on how devastating he has been to them, would allow paul ryan to join the 15% of his district in the unemployment line. The fact that they are not doing this will come back to haunt them. When he runs for a higher office(senator or governor), the uneducated voters will think he has done a great job because his district kept electing him handily. This will allow him to wreak his havoc on a larger population of Wisconsin.
Heaven help us.
How ever the election goes this year, the fact that we cant put up a challenge to the worst elected official in Wisconsin, means Mike Tate has failed in his leadership role!
Acrually there is an opponent running against Paul Ryan.
However…………he really isn’t the best choice. This guy makes Ryan look decent. (That leaves a bad taste in my mouth, just saying that.)
http://www.billtuckerforcongress.com/
A credible challenger to Paul Ryan? Ya, good luck with that one!
The reason why he doesn’t have an opponent is because the GM plant has closed, workers have been laid off, and the union has been decimated. Now it’s a Republican district. Jim Sensenbrenner is probably jealous now. Justsaying.
EVeryone who has run against him has been credible, they have just been underfunded. What makes Paulette Garin or Marge Krupp any less credible than ryan? Even though they would of represented the 1st cong district much better than ryan ever has, they dont have the millions from wall st to inundate the market with ads…
Ryan is currently in Rock Star status. Unless the challenger has the ideas, solutions and brilliance that come close to Paul, they pale in comparison. Don’t you think the Dem party knows this?
Let me check on the Wall Street donations when I have time, but I won’t necessarily discredit Paul because of that. We both know that unfortunately both parties are the recipient of some fairly large checks. Funny thing is I always thought it was the GOP that benefited from Wall Street until the disclosures of late!
The point I am making here is that while Ryan is a rock star, his “ideas and solutions” have been devastating to his district and listening to him talk about dismanteling social security and Medicare, shows his brilliance is nonexistent. He is a shallow wall st whore who will do whatever it takes to make sure wall st thrives at the expense of his district. He has shown this over and over and over…..
FYI –
Ryan, meanwhile takes immense amounts of money from the special interests whose priorities he always serves. His biggest financial support comes from the Insurance Industry ($460,901), which appreciates his anti-regulatory fanaticism. Ditto for the Securities and Investments Industries (aka- Wall Street), which shoved $301,949 his way. He got another $226,745 from commercial banks and $209,184 from the Real Estate Industry… and you begin to see how Paul Ryan has been so complicit in the American financial meltdown.
Last year Ryan’s Democratic challenger was Marge Krupp, a chemical engineer. He spent over $2.2 million and his biggest single contributor was the American Bankers Association. Krupp spent $143,292.
Wow, I didn’t realize you would get this stirred up. Once you start attacking this decent family man and calling him shallow and a whore, I need to stop all discussions though. That is really disheartening. Have you met Paul? Have you looked into the man’s eyes and spoken to him? He has deep character and commitment to his country. Paul WORKS for the people of his district and this nation. He is not trying to dismantle anything. Improve yes, fund yes. How in the heck do we pay for all these unfunded entitlements? 90% tax?!
A side note: as you are attacking these various industries, do you remember that they are PEOPLE and not just some entity. This isn’t totally directed at you, but when I hear people go after BP for example, they seem to forget that the company is made up of hardworking people. Not to mention the pensions and retirement of other people. It’s all people and not some two-headed evil corporate monster! There now you got me riled up. Have a great night!
Have you looked into the man’s eyes and spoken to him?
That didn’t go so good for President Bush and Putin…you sure you want to go there?
And I’ll agree with you that corporations are made up of a lot of individual people. But the actual decisions get made by the dozen or so individuals in the board room and corner offices and they aren’t necessarily looking out for the thousands in their employ…and certainly not the millions in their sphere of operration. And I feel for the employees of BP but their blunders may have destroyed whole ways of life for tens of thousands of others in the gulf coast permanently.
He follows the more bigoted members of his party in wanting to deny equal rights to the LGBT community. That alone makes me sick I ever voted for him in the past. He voted yes on denying same sex couples from the right to adopt, so it doesn’t matter how much of a decent “family man” he is if he is out to destroy families unlike his own.
I dont need to look into the eyes of the good family man to see his results. When he perpetually votes against the best interests of his constituents. He gave all of his neighbors in Janesville a nice Christmas present last year when the GM plant closed on Christmas eve.
What kind of character do you have when you continually vote to not extend unemployment benefits despite the fact that you “represent” one of the most depressed districts in the country with a skyrocketing unemployment? Especially when he couldnt give wall st unaccountable billions fast enough (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml).
This is a guy who follows Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, and says he learned from Jonah Goldbergs ridiculous book “liberal fascism”. Could he follow anything else less credible? Maybe he spends his vacations on the hunt for Bigfoot….
Proud, what do you suggest Paul should have done about GM? I’m pretty sure GM was in trouble in Democrat districts too. I could say Feingold gave his hometown of Janesville a present on Christmas too since he represents the whole state. Would that be fair? Tell me what you wanted them to do. Should the government have taken over the plant?
I love hearing “progressives” like you constantly go after the “evil” corporations by proposing anti-business policies and then are somehow surprised when those same businesses have to leave the state or country or lay people off. I think legacy costs demanded by labor unions are more to blame than Ryan or Feingold.
As for Ryan extending unemployment benefits, is it too much to stop and ask after 2 years of extensions how long they are going to be extended and where the money is going to come from? Instead of messing around with a two month extension here and a 6 week extension there, why don’t liberals just extend them out 10 years and be done with it.
Its simple forgot, we could end NAFTA,CAFTA,GATT, etc.. and not give China most favored trade status. We could also of done things like when we had the cash for clunkers program, only give rebates on cars made in America. It was poorly written and gave too much business to the foreign car companies and still stimulated the big three. If we had done it right we could of really brought jobs back to America.
so is it fair that feingold also takes credit for Gm leaving. Absolutely not. Unlike Ryan, Feingold has voted against every single “free” trade agreement we have.
Should Obama have taken over the auto industries, I would of loved to see that. I would of liked to see him take them over and get them up and running again without paying exorbitant salaries to incompetent management then resell it back to the employees. But that would make too much sense.
As for unemployment benefits the answer is simple. Until they get jobs. Right now there are not jobs and people need money to eat and live.
http://politicaltruths.info/2010/07/02/john-mccains-former-economist-we-need-to-spend-on-jobs-or-face-another-recession-p2-tcot-teaparty.aspx
NAFTA was passed in the 90s… by Bill Clinton. I’m not sure a protectionist view of trade is the answer to our problems. It’s also a bit of a stretch to blame Ryan for trade agreements and thus GM employees out of their jobs.
A short term cash-for-clunkers no matter how it was done was never going to bring back long-term jobs. It just consolidated car purchases for that year into a shorter period, meanwhile leaving the poor at a disadvantage because there were no used cars to buy (the govt destroyed them in the name of saving the planet). And just how are you defining a car made in America? There are foreign plants down south that provide tons of American jobs. A better idea than any clunkers program would have been to cut everyone’s taxes and let them decide where their money goes, no strings attached.
The fact that you want Obama/the government to take over an industry in the name of “saving” it speaks volumes. That’s not how the free market works. What makes GM so special? Or do you believe Obama should step in to take over every failing business in America? If a business isn’t competitive, it’s healthy for the economy for it to fail so something more efficient and effective rises up to take its place. Government stepping in is another case of good intentions gone wrong.
As for unemployment, you are saying you want it to be a new welfare program. I hope you realize that some people may not be motivated to get a job until those benefits do run out. I am not unsympathetic to those truly in need, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that after 2 years of benefits to stop and ask where is the money going to come from. I thought the Dems were all about “pay as you go”? Or maybe that only when they weren’t in charge.
Nafta was passed in the 90s, with about 99% of the republicans(and too many dems) voting for it and signed by Bill Clinton. Doesn’t make it a liberal policy. We have signed many other “free” trade agreements since then with ryan touting them all. If he was truly representing his district he would work to fix or end them. It has nothing to do with protectionist policies it has to do with a level playing field and no one makes China or the other countries live up to their end of the agreement.
I would of been happy to have a cash for clunkers allowable for any car MADE on US soil, no matter the company but we did not have that either. I would also of preferred it be available only to GM/FORD/Chrysler. There are lots of foreign plants that are providing low income jobs in the south thanks to multi millions of dollars of corporate welfare from states such as AL.
What makes GM/Ford/Chrysler so special is the hundreds of thousands of well paying manufacturing jobs are the lifeblood of this country. We cant afford to lose the ones we have lost, much less anymore.
In an era of no bid contracts, crony capitalism, billions of dollars given in corporate welfare, lobbyists writing regulation, etc… we do not live in a free market anyway. I don’t think that the government should be involved in most business and I definitely don’t want them making cars for the long haul. It is a nice dream to say some business “more efficient”would step in and take their place but that is not reality. We know that Honda/Toyota would step in and take their market share, both of those companies are HIGHLY subsidized by their respective governments. If it wasnt for government help, toyota wouldn’t be in business.
As for Unemployment being the “new welfare program”. It is hard to find an economist that does not think we should be extending benefits. It is one of the best stimulus programs we can use because the money they get is all spent. The myth that people arent motivated to get jobs has been disproven over and over and over. For the people in Janesville, where are the jobs going to come from?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/republicans-the-party-of_b_636052.html
“On the first point, there is a considerable amount of economic research. Most indicate that, in periods when the economy is operating near its capacity, more generous benefits may modestly increase the unemployment rate. However, they are less likely to have that effect now. The reason is simple: The economy does not have enough jobs. The latest data from the Labor Department show that there are five unemployed workers for every job opening.”
Too many contradictions to respond to them all, but now you complain about southern states giving “corporate welfare” to auto plants. Well, what did the federal government do with GM if it’s not considered “corporate welfare”? I would say favorable tax policies are far better than bailing them out of debt later. The government keeping the car companies afloat is only going to last so long. How long should the feds keep funding them?
When Obama keeps racking up the debt funded by China, how do you expect to keep China accountable to anything?
“The myth that people arent motivated to get jobs has been disproven over and over and over.” — I’m not saying its everyone. If it is a myth how do you explain the recent unemployment numbers where unemployment stayed the same due to a high number of people who were no longer looking for work?
On your last point, if the economy doesn’t have enough jobs, then didn’t that wonderful stimulus package fail its goal?
I was complaining about toyota/honda getting bailed out by their government and getting millions from our states, while everyone says that GM isn’t running efficiently enough. People need and will always need cars, so the feds should help the big three as long as needed. When people say that we cant compete with the foreign car companies, that is just not true.
when people give up looking for a job then they are no longer counted in the unemployment rolls. This makes the unemployment numbers always look better then they are.
The stimulus has created the jobs that have been created. Already the Obama administration has created more jobs in 2 years than the bush admin did in 10. Without the stimulus, we would fallen into a recession. It speaks to the mess that the bush administration left us, not what Obama has done. Although the stimulus was too watered down with tax cuts from his failed attempt to be bi partisan.
I don’t like the government deciding which businesses get to stick around and which ones government decides are expendable. If the government just had favorable policies across the board, we would be much better off. Again, it’s progressives/liberals who run around demonizing businesses and wanting to make them pay their “fair share.” Then when things go bad, they run around trying to clean up their mess in piecemeal fashion. I’m sure your cap-and-trade will do wonders for the business climate too.
What long-term private sector jobs have Obama and his stimulus package created? All I see are short-term government jobs and contracts. Once those projects and the census is over, then what? “Without the stimulus, we would have fallen into a recession” Here’s a news flash: we are in a recession and bracing for a double-dip. A stimulus focused on the private sector would have been much better.
Thanks for speaking with common sense reality forgotmyscreenname. I am way too tired to argue with this mentality today…
actually its republicans who keep deregulating business and then when things go bad the adults in the room come in and try and clean up the mess. Unfortunately with all of the money in politics, the industries that need the most regulating just buy their way out of it. That is another discussion though. This discussion is on the incompetence of Paul Ryan and why the democratic party wont field a challenger.
By the way can anyone tell me a success of paul ryans?
The adults in the room? Are you referring to the government? or just the Dems in government? This comes off as though you see the government as parental and that…is frightening! Do you understand there are consequences to over-regulating? Please help me to understand why some liberals have so much faith that government is the answer to everything. Sorry for the 20 questions but your adult analogy really threw me…
http://paulettegarin.blogspot.com/2010/07/garin-decides-to-sit-this-one-out.html
The adults in the room, refer to the few politicians who arent bought and paid for by wall st. The government is not the parent, they are US. The government is made of “We The People” and are not out to soak up every last penny in profit. They are also answerable to us. Unlike the multinational corporations that are not answerable to anyone.
I understand that there are consequences for over-regulating. I also understand, and this has been proven the last few years, that the consequences for under regulating are devastating.
Proud….The few politicians not bought and paid for by Wall St.? Like Obama?? Who re’cd more “Wall St” $$ than McCain. First of all the bought & Pd for are doing what with their money? It might go into their re-election campaign, if it goes other places that’s illegal, and many pol’s on both sides have been taken down for mis-appropriation of campaign “gifts”. Thus campaign donations are not really that corrupting, especially in noncompetitive races. In fact Feingold should’ve been pretty safe this year, but a brave guy with some money in his bank is gonna take a swipe at him. Maybe all that money Russ has won’t be enough:).
As for the free market and over vs. deregulation your arguements show a complete lack of understanding. Your support for Ponzi schemes like Social Security add more evidence to disinterest in reality when it comes to how an economy actually works. You have criticized the free market on one hand and praised such things as GM and Chrysler bailout, Cash for Klunkers, SS, Medicare, never ending unemployment, I could go on!!!
The “adults” in the room are and should be the free market..if GM makes a Crap product..they should go out of business or re-tool or be broken into smaller companies. Proud I’m almost thinking your a poser..trying to single-handidly throw lefty soft-balls. Always enjoy the discussion.
Its not what they do with the money its how they vote. When Paul Ryan takes hundreds of thousands from wall st and then is the main cheerleader for the TARP bailouts….that is what I mean by being bought and paid for.
I made two points that you missed –
1. I haven’t criticized the free market so much as pointed out that it truly doesnt exist. We have not nor ever had a truly free market. In America we have a mixed economy with some semblances of a free market.
2. GM doesnt make a crap product their product competes very well with everything else out there. Their cars even stop!
My response is that we can have a “freer Market” and we’ll all be better off, the Freer the better. And Secondly I didn’t mean to indicate that GM made a Crap product..My bad i meant it as a “for instance”. Although I will NEVER buy another GM or Chrysler vehicle because of the Govt intervention in the bankruptcy. Had the free market and a realistic bankruptcy occurred the unions would’ve been forced to renegotiate or better yet dissolve completely! Allowing for a free market to determine the value of the workforce. Versus an artificially expensive workforce dictated by the Union.
As for TARP which was a bailout you oppose? and yet Cash for Clunkers and the GM and Chrysler Bailout’s you support?? You seem to think that Govt manipulation is OK unless you despise one business or the other. I would prefer TARP, The BK’s the banks and even the AIG all had been permitted to fail, the re-organized companies would have emerged stronger and smarter. Proud you need to be consistent either you want the Govt all up in our faces or you don’t. I don’t because the more the Govt. interferes the more likely it is businesses will grow elsewhere. If you want to criticize NAFTA, CAFTA, and GATT you will find that those treaties saved American jobs, and kept hundreds of companies from leaving earlier that they otherwise would have.