Paul Ryan is routinely defined in the media as a 'fiscal conservative." But if a fiscal conservative is someone who believes in balanced budgets, Ryan is anything but.
"During the Bush-Cheney era," said Rachel Maddow on Tuesday's The Rachel Maddow Show, "Mr. Ryan, as a member of Congress, voted for all the things in the George W. Bush era that cost a lot of money and that were not paid for at all: Two massive breaks, two wars, the Medicare Part D expansion which cost hundreds of billions of dollars, [and] the Wall Street bailout."
Maddow went on: "None of those things were paid for. All of it was added to the national charge card, asking future generations to pick up the tab. A fiscal conservative would not have made those votes during the Bush-Cheney era, but Mr. Ryan did."
Ryan should instead be understood as an acolyte of extreme libertarian novelist Ayn Rand, Maddow suggested. The vice presidential candidate has cited Rand as an inspiration on numerous occasions, and is even reported to have made his interns read her novels. Rand extols the rich in books like Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, portraying them as producers while the masses are mere parasites.
"This is a real philosophy—it is a fringe one, but it is real—and it has nothing at all to do with fiscal conservatism," Maddow said.
Leave a Comment:
Ayn Rand's novels, while extolling the virtues of the innovators and the receipt of rewards because of ingenuity, doesn't exactly praise the rich. The novels do take to task those who reap benefits and rest on the laurels of those who help build the nation, as well as the destruction that occurs when many of the rich take advantage of their station. Many of the rich in her books are as much parasites, maybe more so, than the general masses.
I tried to read a Rand book once on the recommendation of a guy I was dating. After a few chapters I put down the book and called him to break it off.
It's depraved. She seems to worship the Narcissists and no one else
Here is the problem with Ayn Rand: the philosophy she pushes is totally bogus. Look at the real history of America at the college level. Go read about the partnership between the government, the military, the Army Corps of Engineers, and industry. The government built infrastructure such as the Erie Canal, steam boats, the canal system in the Midwest, the dredging of the Mississippi by the Corps of Engineers for shipping, the transcontinental railroad were all products of the partnership between the government, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the Corps of Engineers, and industry. After the public sector and the military partnered with industry did the heavy lifting of building infrastructure and established the rule of the law then people moved out in family and religious groups settling along the limits of that infrastructure. Businesses and farms formed after the infrastructure got built by the partnership between the government, military, and industry. The 20th century saw the winning of two world wars, the Cold War, and the Space race all accomplished by the partnership between government, the military, and industry.
I have a challenge for any Ayn Rand followers out there in right wing land. Name a major scientific or engineering advance made in the post Civil War until the end of the Cold war period that was made by a private business or entrepreneur? I will say easily that all major scientific accomplishments and technological advances were first used as prototypes by a soldier, sailor, or airman long before any civilian entrepreneur even touched that technology. Civilian entrepreneurs and businessman take advantage of the opportunities given to them to prosper after the public sector and the military does all the heavy lifting and real risk taking for them. Look at radar, jet aircraft, the development of ballistic missiles, solid state electronics, the automobile society, rocket ships to the Moon etc. the military perfected the technology and developed it while later on civilian companies followed where a soldier, sailor, or airman went long before.
The Department of Defense today is developing green energy technologies on a vast scale. Solar panels, electric vehicles, wind farms, and whole range of other initiatives like coal to liquid fuel and biomass fuels for aviation fuel are being developed on a massive scale. One out of four casualties were caused by road side bombings and attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan on military fuel conveys. Increased fuel costs are eating up the military budget so green energy means lots of green dollar bills saved for Admirals and Generals desperate to make their budget stretch to buy new weapons and develop new technologies. Its gotten too expensive for the military to use fuel on the scale that it has so the U.S. military is going green on a huge scale. Civilian entrepreneurs will again follow in the footsteps of soldiers, sailors, and airmen because we are all going green sooner rather than later as a society here in a place called America.
Well done, Rex. Now if the lazy (or scared of losing their jobs) media would act like media is supposed to, we could even see this kind of information disseminated to the public in general. It needs to be.
Rand, unfortunately, like Limbaugh has many sheep walking behind and grazing on the feces known as her philosophy. I am glad to know Ryan is a follower. Good job media. Which is your job - to inform
the only myth the clowns at msnbc should concern themselves with is that they will be employed after the election..a friend who is in the know, at 30 rock, says plans are ready to release most of them..comcast will no longer put up owning a laughingstock..this is a newtork that put on an illiterate like al sharpton, and the price is going to be paid for the disaster...imagine a network where maddow is the #1 ratings getter...that says all you need to know...at least maybe they can get work at current tv....oh, i forgot, theyre closing down too....liberalism sure doesnt pay...