One of the 'rising stars' of the conservative movement within the Republican party is Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. He has been a solid voice of conservatism on many issues, but here's a giant red flag:
A top Republican now has buyer's remorse about his vote last week in favor of a punitive tax increase on AIG employees.
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the top Republican on the budget committee, said Thursday he would have voted against the 90 percent tax increase if he had known that legal scholars would deem it unconstitutional.
"Now, that I know — which I didn't at the time — that this is unconstitutional, I wouldn't have voted the same way," Ryan said during a taping of C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" on Thursday — the show is set to air on Sunday. POLITICO was one of the participants in the Ryan interview.
Ryan blames confusion about the constitutionality of the plan on Democrats for rushing the bill through the House.
Okay, I have to give him kudos for having the stones to admit his mistake; that's a rarity in politics these days. On the other hand, votes like this force us to question both his ability to remain consistent and his competence. Is he so weak that he will let Democrats rush through legislation in a hurry no matter what it is? Is he so stupid that he doesn't get the common sense concept that a 90% tax on bonuses within a private company is ALWAYS the wrong answer? Constitutionality issues aside, he should never have voted for this, no matter how much confusion or rushing there was! And that's another point right there - is the GOP really so dense that they don't suspect any foul play when the Democrats are deliberately rushing a bill and causing confusion? If it were me, I'd immediately do everything I could do slow things down and ask a multitude of questions every time the Dems started pushing like they did on this thing.
Finally, his excuse of confusion and rushing just doesn't hold water. You read about the unconstitutionality and downsides of this thing here on this blog for days, as well as many others. Does Ryan not have a computer with an Internet connection?
It's an inexcusable lapse from someone billed as a rising star withing the GOP. If this is the best the GOP's got, we're in serious trouble.
There's my two cents.
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