Blogging Blue

As I’ve previously blogged, Congressman Paul Ryan has been working furiously to paint himself as a fiscal conservative. First came his Budget Boondoggle Award, and then came his “bold new” plan to ensure prosperity and freedom for our future, but while conservatives fall all over themselves in a mad dash to parrot virtually the same talking points from Congressman Ryan’s Roadmap For America’s Future, they’re neglecting to point out Congressman Ryan’s dirty little secrets.

After all, while Rep. Ryan has tried really hard to portray himself as a so-called fiscal conservative, citing his his opposition to pork barrel spending as proof of that fact, he’s neglected to own up to his own vote in favor of the ultimate pork-barrel spending, that being the war in Iraq. Time and time again Congressman Ryan has voted to spend hundreds of billions of dollars - American taxpayers’ dollars - to fund the war in Iraq. If Congressman Ryan were so concerned about wasteful spending, perhaps he should start voting against writing virtually blank checks to support our war in Iraq.

And now let’s talk about Rep. Ryan’s Roadmap For America’s Future, which as I previously mentioned so many conservatives have been falling all over themselves to praise.

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As reported a couple of weeks ago by Michael Mathias at Pundit Nation, Americans For Prosperity are holding their Defending the American Dream summit on February 9th in Pewaukee. Among those slated to speak at the summit are Congressman Paul Ryan, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee. As I perused the website for the summit, I couldn’t help but notice this:

Earlier this year, we held the largest taxpayer rally in Wisconsin’s history on the steps of the state capitol in Madison to send a message to the Governor and Legislature to hold the line on taxes.

While AFP might technically be correct in saying they held the largest taxpayer rally in Wisconsin’s history earlier this year, that’s not exactly saying too much, considering they were outnumbered almost two to one by folks opposed to AFP’s anti-tax kookery.

Is kookery even a word? I’m not sure it is, but it should be.

Heck, I might even attend the summit - maybe Michael Mathias will give me his free tix.

As first reported by Keith Schmitz over at folkbum’s rambles and rants, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan has started giving out his Budget Boondoggle Award to “highlight the most egregious, wasteful, and unnecessary spending American taxpayers were forced to fund.” What’s really interesting to note about the first set of Budget Boondoggle Awards to just two budget items totaling 59 million dollars:

• 20 million dollars budgeted to pay for a commercial ferry in Alaska nicknamed “The Ferry to Nowhere,” connecting Anchorage with Port MacKenzie, which Ryan said would serve 40 people.
• 39 million dollars budgeted for the National Drug Intelligence Center, which duplicates other federal drug enforcement efforts, and which President Bush has repeatedly proposed closing.

What I can’t figure out is how Congressman Ryan could only come up with a paltry 59 million dollars worth of “egregious, wasteful, and unnecessary spending” while our government continues to throw piles of money - roughly 275 million dollars per day, to be exact - into the war in Iraq. What’s really ironic here is that Paul Ryan wants to paint himself as a fiscal conservative, when in reality he’s nothing of the sort. Time and time again he’s voted to spend billions upon billions of tax dollars in Iraq, and time and time again he’s voted in favor of legislation that contains billions of dollars in earmarks, so he’s in no position to hand out awards highlighting wasteful spending.

Perhaps when Congressman Ryan’s ready to stop voting in lockstep with the Republican Party when it comes to writing blank checks for the war in Iraq, I’ll start taking his newfound sense of fiscal responsibility seriously.