Why the Billionaires Chose Paul Ryan To Be Speaker

Because of all the prosperity and stuff,
 the little people are loving the austerity and stuff.
Plus, NOW you can't get rid of me. Ever. [cartoon source]

The GOP's Latest "Monument to Hypocrisy"

Not to mention, of course, out right lying to an information starved

 Republican base which has finally been abused enough to no longer care.

Although the cartoon [above] speaks clearly to Ryan's record of absolutely detesting any kind of social safety net, there are plenty of other pretty good reasons to avoid him like the plague. The "safety net hatred" is straight, unadulterated Ayn Rand style "Objectivism." Rand's dystopian wet dream amounted to a screw ball, Libertarian orgasm in which the US government would strictly limit tax expenditures to national military defense, policing and a domestic judiciary which would be limited to resolving looting issues between billionaires.

Paul becomes conveniently Catholic when he extends this free fall Libertarianism into his vision of domestic law to not only rape prosecutions, but also most forms of contraception. [Remember - he intends to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives where laws like this one traditionally originate.] He sponsored the "Sanctity of Life" Act which proposed issuing "full citizenship" to fertilized eggs. Still, slashing food stamps and winter heating subsidies while funneling "the savings" into tax cuts for his millionaire bosses didn't sit that well with either the Catholic Bishops or the Nuns on the Bus who took to the road to campaign against him.

Economically, Ryan is a "debt vulture" -- in fact, perhaps even the "head debt vulture," a real challenge among the retrograde GOP crowd in the House. He individually served as one of the main "cheer leaders" for the calamitous high end tax cuts during the Bush autocracy which are still in place, and which are still serving as "perpetual wrecking balls" to efforts to mitigate the national budget deficit. [Theoretically, this isn't entirely "hypocrisy." Those tax cuts are squeezing everything from the social safety net to highway maintenance by denying revenue to the government.]

Representative Ryan has still found the time to promote more than a little of his "inspired, Ayn Randian social engineering" work -- especially with his penchant for demonizing the poor. “We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with,” Ryan said on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America. Paul Ryan has never worked anywhere but in politics and the government.

Paul has met every loyalty test that big oil could pose for a "well lubricated" Congressman. Aside from his own family's extensive oil holdings, the big whigs in the "lubricating business" have made sure that Ryan's campaign war chests are "full to the gunwales" with oily, Federally subsidized, practically tax free, gold Ducats. Naturally, Paul doesn't lose much sleep worrying about imaginary, liberal follies such as climate change, either. [Read more  here Paul Ryan ADDICTING INFO]

The New Speaker's "Moments of Good Fortune" Strategy

Hmmm. Things seem to be rolling along suspiciously smoothly.

It's worth the effort to point out some of the peculiar features of the "completely coincidental, meteoric ascension" the Representative is enjoying at the time of this posting. MeanMesa has spotted three of these very curiously advantageous "coincidences."

Speaker Ryan's 

Series of "Coincidental Embraces of Happy Destiny"

Golly. The man's good luck is astonishing...

1. Everyone was watching Hillary and the Benghazi hearings.

Actually, Hillary's masterful domination of the Benghazi "special committee" surprised absolutely no one. In fact MeanMesa suspects that the entire fiasco amounted to a premeditated tactic for Special Committee Chairman, Trey Gowdy, to officially "fall on his sword" while all the network news cameras filmed it. 

In the beginning "Rowdy" Gowdy promised to be "great fun" while the Republican leadership was still lost in a premature ejaculation festival, fantasizing about the great political victory the hearings would bring a few weeks ahead of the 2016 election. But then...Gowdy, although the most credentialed "hatchet man" available in the admittedly rustic GOP House Conference, became more and more embarrassing. 

With the inevitable "licking" that Gowdy's committee was facing, the decision was made to use the "voluntary self immolation" of the committee to run media cover for the politically perilous Ryan Ascension to Speakership. Ryan had a well known image problem with most everyone who wasn't hypnotized by the FOX bubble -- including more than a few otherwise "fire breathing" tea baggers who happened to be living on their Social Security checks.

2. While the humble, reluctant hero, "suddenly" being groomed  to "save the day," was still in make up preparing for his scene, political daylight began illuminating his not so humble, premeditated, Machiavellian power grabbing scheme.

The "near Saintly" image scripted by Representative Ryan as he fumbled and bumbled, back and forth, torn between the love and devotion to his family and the call of his duty for "patriotic self-sacrifice," was so cheaply shabby as to be laughable. It wasn't even good propaganda, and that criticism, when extended to Republican FOXites, cuts to the bone. The billionaires who own the Party had always insisted on "good propaganda" to keep the hill billies outraged -- and in line.

The well managed crisis of utter unmanageability had descended on the chaotic GOP House Caucus like a 21st Century epidemic of the Black Plague. All the "candidates to be the next Caesar" had either committed political suicide, been assassinated already or were in hiding. While this might have appeared to be an "unfortunate coincidence," the whole affair had that "suspicious odor" of being a rather meat handed conspiracy to ordain Ryan as "heir apparent" and as a "solution to the emergency," This conspiracy had been birthed so long ago as to already be somewhat "long in the tooth."

McCarthy's loud mouthed "misstep" was probably part of the plan.

3. Meeting Ryan's demand for a few "minor rule changes" bodes dark weather ahead for ALL the House Republicans.

With the quivering corpse of the previous Caesar [Boehner] still "hot on the floor" the pitch that Ryan was simply maneuvering to avoid the same fate seemed understandable enough, but closer examination of the political realities at play suggests a very different scenario.

We must begin by speculating about precisely why Ryan has turned out to the the billionaires' "chosen one." Happily, the mystery is not particularly difficult to resolve.

We can begin by asking ourselves: "What has been Ryan's embarrassingly obvious obsession every time he's appeared before a microphone during the last decade?"

The answer isn't too tough. More than anything else in the entire world, Ryan's dreams are fixated on handing the $2.7 Tn Social Security Trust Fund -- or even a substantial part of it -- over to the Owners of the Republican Party. The "standard script" for accomplishing this is to convert the Trust into an "investment account" and pumping the entire thing into the Wall Street casinos.

When he speaks as a Representative [and Chairman of the GOP's House Ways and Means Committee] or when he was speaking as a Vice Presidential Candidate, nary five minutes can pass without another reference to "the absolute necessity of cutting entitlements." Ryan is always careful to add other "entitlements" as additional targets in his plan, but his scheme always returns to the $2.7 Tn in the Social Security Trust -- the source of funds for all the rest.

Ryan has wet dreams in the dark of night but not about what one might consider more or less "normal" things. He dreams about how "grateful" the billionaires would be if he were to be the one who finally managed to "deliver the goods" on the oligarchs' Social Security Trust scam.

And, although even this is horrible, there's more.

While autocrat, George W. Bush, was spending money like a drunken sailor, a good part of that money came from the Trust -- at least a trillion dollars. So, when we say that the Trust holds $2.7 Tn, we are including the "paper Treasury notes" from the Bush regime for around $1 trillion of that. [Remember Al Gore talking about the Social Security "lock box?"] The problem with all of this is that the Republicans have no idea how they might ever possibly pay this debt. Every time they get close to "running things," their avarice immediately clouds what little mental capacity they have, and they wreck the economy again...and again...and again.

If Ryan were ever able to cut "entitlements" the way he describes, it would represent a "way out" of this briar patch -- at least, a "way out" in Ryan's mind.

Now, on to the "dark horizons" part.

Ryan is nuts. If, as Speaker, he begins a slow, steady pressure to destroy Social Security [and, he could do this if he had the power of being Speaker], the move would be political suicide for the GOP. However, none of the sold out GOP Congressmen have any appetite whatsoever for being "connected" in any way with the political meat grinder of destroying Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest.

Previously, such "crazy talk" was never too much of a problem for the Republicans. Sure, there were always "voices" proposing something like this, but those "voices" were always ignored. But with Ryan as Speaker, there will no longer be any possibility of "ignoring" such proposals.

Whether individual Congressmen were "on board" with the scheme or not, they would be swept up in the mayhem.

The "rules change" that Ryan is insisting upon as one his "demands" calls for abolishing of the House rule that empowers members to oust the Speaker.

This means that otherwise non-suicidal House members would be stuck with Ryan at the helm, and anti-Social Security legislation moving through under the protection of the Speaker and with the votes of the mentally unstable tea bag caucuses.

As far as MeanMesa is concerned, it couldn't happen to a more deserving Party.

Additional Reading

Remembering Exactly What Paul Ryan Is.
The Billionaire "Do-Over" may have "Done Wonders," 
but this deceptively human manikin
 still requires plenty of pan cake for public appearances.

Paul Ryan has invested a great deal of effort to image himself as several "important" things throughout his lack luster career as a politician. Most American voters probably recall Ryan as the "somewhat animated" little henchman with the "salivating problem" while he followed bone dry Mitt Romney around in the last Presidential election. 

The "salivating problem" has always been evidence of a particularly nasty kind of wild ambition which was never successfully reconciled with the little guy's actual place in the scheme of his standing in the atmospherics of the right wing oligarchy crowd. We can all pretty much understand why actual oligarchs and billionaires begin their own, unique episodes of uncontrollable salivating when they find themselves within grabbing range of their latest "bright, shiny object," but Ryan remains a mascot, not a "player."

Come on. After being an overly eager, relentless "House hatchet man" for the Owners of the Republican Party for years, the perpetually "up and coming Young Gun" has barely amassed his first few millions for his dutiful service.

As a politician, a plausibly bonafide claim to "humble roots" was as important as clean underwear to the youngster as he scratched and clawed his way ahead to his place in the "big money realm" of the GOP. For a little background we can look at some LA Times reporting from the days of his Vice Presidential campaign days. [Excerpted. Visit the original article  here - LATIMES Aug 2012]

A closer look at Ryan's "asset record" helps explain the history of his utterly fraudulent, creepy eagerness to "liquify" vital social "safety nets" relied upon by "lesser Americans." His career has lent new substance and meaning to a famous sign on an Anchorage bar from MeanMesa's youth in Alaska: "We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you."

LATimes

Despite working-class image,

Ryan comes from family of wealth

Paul Ryan was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., and his rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family money and connections.

By Ralph Vartabedian, Richard A. Serrano and Ken Bensinger

 Los Angeles Times August 25, 2012|

***

And yet Ryan, 42, was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., the son of a successful attorney and the grandson of the top federal prosecutor for the western region of the state.Ryan grew up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includes investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies.

The seeming contradiction appears to have its roots in a family crisis in 1986, when at the age of 16, Ryan discovered his father dead of a heart attack.

The death of Paul Murray Ryan forced the family to make adjustments. Ryan's mother went back to work. And Ryan took up jobs, as well.

After graduating in 1992 from Miami University, a public college in Ohio, he went to work as an intern and then as a committee professional staffer on Capitol Hill for Sen. Bob Kasten, a Wisconsin Republican, who was defeated that same year by Feingold. When Kasten was voted out, Ryan lost his job. He went to work at the Tortilla Coast restaurant on Capitol Hill, where he ran into Feingold. In 1993, he left behind his hourly job and began as a speechwriter at Empower America, the think tank formed by former congressman and George H.W. Bush Cabinet secretary Jack Kemp and other conservatives, according to a Ryan campaign spokesman.

***

But there was also more to it than work. Ryan's rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family connections and wealth. The larger Ryan family has repeatedly helped the candidate along in his career, giving him a job when he needed one and piling up tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

In the year after his father's death, Ryan's maternal grandmother set up the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, which remains an important part of Ryan's finances with assets of up to half a million dollars, according to the congressman's 2011 financial disclosure statement. Ryan continues as the general partner running the entity for the family.

Court records indicate Ryan's father left a probate estate of $428,000, though the number of assets existing outside the will or the probate remains unknown. Ryan was to receive $50,000 when he turned 30. The will leaves the bulk of the estate to Ryan's mother, who now lives in an oceanfront condo in Florida.

In addition to the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, Ryan also benefits from another family entity, Ryan Limited Partnership, which was established in March 1995 by an aunt. Ryan's share of that is worth up to $500,000. Ryan makes no investment decisions in either partnership, the campaign spokesman said.

By the time Ryan had entered Congress in 1999 at the age of 28 and filed his first disclosure statement, he reported assets between $167,000 and $1.3 million, owned a home and had three rental units.

The next year, Ryan married Janna Little, a tax attorney, and his income skyrocketed. (Ryan reported gross income of $323,416 in 2011.)

Of the Ryans' maximum estimated assets of $7.6 million, Janna's holdings account for about $6.5 million. She is the daughter of Dan and Prudence Little, two lawyers in Madill, Okla., who over the years have overseen a vast network of land and oil and gas mineral rights in the Red River area straddling southern Oklahoma and northern Texas.

The wealth derived from Janna's grandfather, Reuel Winfred Little, a self-made millionaire several times over in oil and gas interests and other ventures. He arrived in Madill in 1927 after graduating from the University of Oklahoma law school, with just $25 and a second-hand typewriter. He invented and patented a type of injector used to poison trees, the Little Tree Injector. He made separate fortunes in legal work and redeveloping former military housing.

Meanwhile, the Ryan extended family was building up its own empire in construction, starting with Patrick Ryan, the congressman's great-grandfather. Ryan's branch of the family did not stay in the construction business, and Ryan has no financial interest in it today, the campaign spokesman said. But in 1998, when Ryan returned to Janesville to begin his first run for Congress, he briefly took a job with Ryan Inc. Central, a Wisconsin-based road grading company.

The Ryan roots run deep in Janesville.

Patriarch Patrick Ryan sent Ryan's grandfather, Stanley M. Ryan, to the University of Wisconsin law school, and he was named U.S. attorney for the western district of Wisconsin when he was 24 by President Harding. He rose to prominence in Janesville as a private attorney, serving on a bank board and as chairman of the fire and police commission. When he died, judges from all over the state came to his funeral. Ryan's father was also a prominent attorney, practicing in Janesville until his death.

Ryan and his family now live in a Georgian Revival home in Janesville that was once owned by the president of the Parker Pen Co. and former chairman of the state Republican Party. The congressman's aunt, uncle, cousin and brother all live within blocks of his home in the historic Courthouse Hill district.

***

And previous posts on this subject from MeanMesa:

MeanMesa Social Security: A GOP Dirty Tricks Primer

MeanMesa GOP: When the Billionaires Get Edgdy