Gov. Palin praises Conservative of the Year Paul Ryan

Sarah Palin added her own words of recognition for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on the occasion of the Congressman being named "Conservative of the Year" for 2011 by the editors of Human Events:

"Paul Ryan has shown needed leadership in addressing America's crucial need for entitlement reform. I was an unapologetic early supporter of the Ryan Roadmap and still hold out hope that many of his ideas won't get derailed by the Left's 'politics-as-usual' antics."

Gov. Palin was named Human Events' "Conservative of the Year" in 2008.

Gov. Palin offers praise for Rep. Paul Ryan's budget

"Serious & necessary"
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At The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Jordan Fabian observes that via Twitter, Sarah Palin has expressed her support for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's budget proposal:

There is hope! Serious & necessary leadership rolls out serious & necessary reform proposal. Good start (from Dec. http://on.wsj.com/eP0Kwo)

[...]

Ryan's plan will slash $5.8 trillion from current spending levels over 10 years, but would not balance the budget for at least two decades. It also proposed huge reforms to Medicare and Medicaid that he said would save the programs, and that Democrats say would hurt the elderly and poor.

The Ryan proposal is likely to become part of the GOP's platform in 2012, regardless of who is the Republican Party's presidential nominee, according to NY Times columnist David Brooks. All eyes and ears are on Gov. Palin, who has made no secret of her interest in running for president in 2012, but has not yet announced whether she intends to run.

Related: Excellent analysis of Ryan budget plan by James Pethokoukis here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (February 16, 2011)

Time to Tackle Entitlements
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Sal at Axis of Right:

"Going into 2012, we are going to need policy wonks like [Paul] Ryan as well as people who can speak directly to the American people, and to me, that is beginning to look more and more like Sarah Palin, but that’s a subject for another post."

- JP

Ace gets Palinized

"Well, she endorsed it"
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At Ace Of Spades HQ, Ace must think Gov. Palin has the ability to read minds or something:

Last week, or two weeks ago, when I was arguing about Palin in the comments, I thought about writing, "Well, if Palin wants to convince me she's serious-minded, she can endorse Ryan's roadmap on entitlements/spending; but that's not really a fair bar for me to set, because she almost certainly won't do that. Too risky, too big."

Well, she endorsed it.

Out: Opposing Palin

In: Open to Palin

Getting behind Ryan's Roadmap, Ace says, was "The One Thing She Could Have Done To Get Me On Board With Her Candidacy."

Welcome aboard, friend.

- JP

John Hayward: Palin And The Ryan Roadmap

"People like Palin, Ryan, and Pence are the adults in the room"
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In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece today, Gov. Palin endorses the fiscal “road map” drawn up by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Human Events' John Hayward opines that the backing of Ryan's carefully-constructed plan by one of the most popular figures in the conservative movement is an important development:

Palin judges the deficit commission’s report inadequate because it leaves three major financial tumors largely untreated: Social Security, ObamaCare, and our incredibly convoluted tax system. The commission would address Social Security by raising the retirement age, long after the point where the system would have become insolvent – and even at that, it would be making an already rotten deal for future retirees even worse. Ryan’s “Roadmap For America’s Future,” on the other hand, offers a program for younger workers to opt into a private retirement account, while preserving existing benefits for those 55 and older. There is, quite frankly, no other approach that will save the system.

[...]

On taxes, the Ryan plan would “replace our high and anticompetitive corporate income tax with a business consumption tax of just 8.5%. The overall tax burden would be limited to 19% of GDP (compared to 21% under the deficit commission's proposals).” From World War II to the 1970s, the government spent less than 20% of GDP. Our fiscal health went terminal when that limit was exceeded. There is a school of economic thought that suggests it’s essentially impossible for any government to indefinitely sustain spending beyond the 20% threshold, as the recessive effects of excessive taxation and spending cause the economy to begin deflating. I think we’ve gotten close enough to proving this theory to suspend the experiment.

Ryan’s plan also simplifies the tax system to two rates, 10% for single filers up to $50,000 or joint filers up to $100,000, and 25 percent for higher amounts, with a generous standard deduction. It eliminates double taxation on savings, investments, and estates, taxing only income. Aside from the health care credit, the rest of the complex maze of deductions, subsidies, and penalties that turn our current tax code into an instrument of social control are eliminated.


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It’s important to see one of the most popular figures in the conservative movement throwing her weight behind a carefully thought-out set of proposals like Ryan’s. As Palin concedes, the Roadmap for America’s Future isn’t perfect, but it’s clearly not a bunch of cockamamie ideas Ryan tossed out in a beer-fueled rant after realizing he couldn’t handle Speaker Nancy Pelosi for one more instant. Ryan’s ideas are also consonant with a lot of interesting things Mike Pence has been saying lately.

The common liberal knock on the Tea Party movement in general, and Sarah Palin in particular, is that they have no ideas, only complaints and sound bites. Palin expresses her own concrete proposals on a regular basis, and now she’s signing on to the reinforced concrete of Paul Ryan’s comprehensive plan. As Americans watch the Democrats dissolve in a petulant meltdown over their own childish demands, economic fantasies, and utter irresponsibility, they would do well to learn that people like Palin, Ryan, and Pence are the adults in the room.

[More]

- JP

Sarah Palin: Why I Support the Ryan Roadmap

An op-ed by Gov. Palin which will appear in Saturday's Wall Street Journal
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The publication of the findings of the president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was indeed, as the report was titled, "A Moment of Truth." The report shows we're much closer to the budgetary breaking point than previously assumed. The Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2017. As early as 2025, federal revenue will barely be enough to pay for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on our national debt. With spending structurally outpacing revenue, something clearly needs to be done to avert national bankruptcy.

The commission itself calculates that, even if all of its recommendations are implemented, the federal budget will continue to balloon—to an estimated $5 trillion in 2020, from an already unprecedented $3.5 trillion today. The commission makes only a limited effort to cut spending below the current trend set by the Obama administration.

Among the few areas of spending it does single out for cuts is defense—the one area where we shouldn't be cutting corners at a time of war. Worst of all, the commission's proposals institutionalize the current administration's new big spending commitments, including ObamaCare. Not only does it leave ObamaCare intact, but its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor, with the chairmen's report suggesting a second look at a government-run health-care program if costs continue to soar.

It also implicitly endorses the use of "death panel"-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.

The commission's recommendations are a disappointment. That doesn't mean, though, that the commission's work was a wasted effort. For one thing, it has exposed the large and unsustainable deficits that the Obama administration has created through its reckless "spend now, tax later" policies. It also establishes a clear bipartisan consensus on the need to fundamentally reform our entitlement programs. We need a better plan to build on these conclusions with common-sense reforms to tackle our long-term funding crisis in a sustainable way.

In my view, a better plan is the Roadmap for America's Future produced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.). The Roadmap offers a reliable path to long-term solvency for our entitlement programs, and it does so by encouraging personal responsibility and independence.

[More]

Congressman Ryan's Roadmap website is here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (March 19, 2010)

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Paul Greenberg:

"Paul Ryan's talking about the national debt in his nerdy way is one thing. It's expected of him and of the party out of power in general. But it's not just the Paul Ryans. Look at Sarah Palin, who's no intellectual, thank goodness, for she can communicate clearly, sensibly and forcefully. These days she can bring a Tea Party crowd to its feet by talking about TARP, AIG, bailouts, hedge funds, credit default swaps ... subjects that were once safely confined to the financial pages. Now they generate applause lines. Something definitely has changed."

- JP