Ryan for prez?

"If you've watched the past year unfold and come to the conclusion that America's problems would finally be solved if only the president was willing to propose much more radical, much more sweeping legislative initiatives, there's something wrong with you."

Amen. Ryan (and I don't doubt his good intentions) effectively wants to take a wrecking ball to every 3rd rail in politics. If elected, he'd have a very Obama-y first year, even if (perhaps especially if) he had Republican majorities in both houses.

He may have his eye on the presidency, but good luck to him, proposing stuff like his healthcare reform. He would get skewered in the press and by his critics, and would have left himself wide open to it.

I think Scott Brown has a better chance than Ryan. Heck, I think Sarah Palin has a better chance than Ryan, and I think her chances are awfully slim.

There is a reason that even with no incumbent Ryan isn't seeking the Governorship in Wisconsin.

I am more conservative than Representative Ryan and I believe we should refine the system that we currently have with a health care reform bill similar to what passed the Senate in December.

The Senate bill, plus tort reform, plus a reduction in the threshold for the excise tax by about $2,000 will decrease health care costs and increase revenue over the current bill as passed. This funding can be plowed into subsidies to reduce the reliance on Medicaid expansion, much to the appreciation of the nation's governors and people who will have good insurance as opposed to the insurance ghetto of Medicaid.

So Mr. Ryan rehashes a few old debunked policy ideas and he's the Republican second coming? I know W lowered the bar for Republican candidates for president, but this is sad.

After the way Cheney acted as the VP, I think the only remaining step in the Unitary Executive arc would be to place the laurels on the President's head. So no, we don't need a stronger "will of a great leader."

Get a haircut I can look at, then you can run for President

If I was Obama, I'd use the upcoming summit, not in a fruitless effort to revive the House and Senate bills, but to blow the logjam to smithereens by proposing a plan that Ryan will find very difficult to resist.

Please stop legitimizing these corporate tools and their craptastic, anti-human, budgetary fantasies.

Except of course that this "great leader" is a Republican, so he will ALMOST CERTAINLY have at least a few bipartisan defections for his proposals, no matter how radical.

It's disingenuous to talk about our current Senate/Congressional paralysis as an "American" problem. We have to be real here -- this is a Democratic party problem. It's true that SIMILAR structural impediments slow down the Republicans, but they really do not result in the same paralysis.

Once again, Ezra is mistaking "proposing" with "leading". The public wants to vote for a leader with an idea, a policy, a plan (say. . . I don't know . . . maybe HCR). And then they want the leader to actually *lead*.

I know that it sounds radical to some, but handing off your platform to legislators rather than proposing, in detail, a plan that you actually ran on is not *leading*.

Like it or not, Bush pushed through nearly all of his platform (NCLB, tax cuts, energy bill) in the first year of his presidency when he didn't even have control of the Senate (remember Jeffords' defection?). Right or wrong, Bush led on his agenda. People are waiting for Obama to do likewise.

Until then, the latest, newest shiny thing will be looked at to see if there's leadership potential. Nature and politics abhor vacuums.

"...they really do not result in the same paralysis."

corporate. tools.

So what you're saying is all Republicans are tools and only a minority of Democrats.

You are correct. This is what we know:

All Republicans want tax cuts for the rich. All Republicans want to cut or privatize social security.
All Republicans want to cut medicare drastically.
All Republicans want to eliminate Medicaid.
All Republicans think trickle down economics and deregulation works despite the ECONOMIC MELTDOWN near DEPRESSION they just caused.
All Republicans think its OK that workers wages have remained stagnant since Reagan sold missiles to Iran.

That only a small margin of Democrats subscribe to some of this stupidity is minor comfort.

That All Republicans subscribe to this stupidity is bad for the country, because they don't care.

Thank God President Obama is President of ALL American Citizens.

@perhapsnot1: "All Republicans want tax cuts for the rich. All Republicans want to cut or privatize social security."

I don't think that's exactly true. Actually, most of us would like tax cuts for everybody. And, if tax cuts for the rich are bad, why don't the Democrats call Republicans out and propose a drastic tax cut for everyone who isn't rich?

"All Republicans want to cut medicare drastically."

Not really. Newt Gingrich proposed modernizing and stripping away a lot of the Medicare bureaucracy (which might have made it more prone to fraud than it already is, but that's another issue). Other than that, and Paul Ryan's never-going-to-happen proposal of privatizing Medicare, what evidence is there that *all* Republicans want to cut medicare? It was George Bush and the Republicans in the congress that expanded Medicare, in the form of Medicare Part D. There were no reductions, or attempt to reduce, Medicare during 8 years of Bush.

"All Republicans want to eliminate Medicaid."

Republicans want to eliminate Medicaid? Where is that in the GOP platform, exactly? Where is the propose legislation that *eliminates* Medicaid?

"All Republicans think trickle down economics and deregulation works despite the ECONOMIC MELTDOWN near DEPRESSION they just caused."

I don't think they all do. I certainly think trickle down economics works and some deregulation can work, but I think you're incorrect in assuming that deregulation is something only a minority of Democrats support. Almost all deregulation in banking and the financial sector over the past 20 years has had broad bi-partisan support.

As far as supply-side economics having caused the recent economic meltdown, I disagree. First, the quasi-supply-side economics may be as pure as we'll ever get, but our economy is far from being a close-to-pure supply side economy. Secondly, the philosophy going into the creation of the subprime loan market was the antithesis of trickle down, and existed because of the government monkeying in the marketplace. Then, the response to economic downturn--TARP and The Recovery Act--are also the polar opposites of "trickle down" or supply side economics.

"All Republicans think its OK that workers wages have remained stagnant since Reagan sold missiles to Iran."

I'm not sure they do. I think they'd prefer that wages rise for everybody--I know I would. Who wouldn't? But there isn't a button to press to make that happen.

"Thank God President Obama is President of ALL American Citizens."

Unless they are really old, and then they should take a pill and prepare to die. Or if they bitterly cling to God and guns. Then maybe not so much. Or, if they work on Wall Street (unless it's a personal friend), a bank, in the travel industry, or live in Las Vegas.

"If you've watched the past year unfold and come to the conclusion that America's problems would finally be solved if only the president was willing to propose much more radical, much more sweeping legislative initiatives, there's something wrong with you."

Ha! Exactly right. Thus the problem with the cult of personality that embodies presidential campaigns. The misguided belief that the various veto points of our system, special interests, pure lack of courage, and other reasons why things dont happen can all be miraculously washed away by some Great Leader delivered unto us some glorious day is very romantic and exciting but totally alien to reality.

You have to admit this sort of thing makes covering presidential campaigns interesting though? Who'd ever get excited about a speech in Iowa or NH with some boring Republican or Democrat complaining how the Senate wont do any of these wonderful things he's saying??

Kevin face it you Republicans are bad for the country.

Read Ryan's budget.

Read your 'healthcare plan' The Patients Choice Act' which would effectively kill medicaid for poor family's and as one economist said “[t]he idea of turning Medicaid patients over to the private market is wacky Medicaid managed care can be a good idea. Medicaid recipients include lots of people who are poorly educated, mentally handicapped, and have other problems. That is not where one wants the private market to control.”[Washington Post – Ezra Klein, 5/21/09]

Of Course All Republicans want Tax cuts for the rich. Look at your Budget. That's what it says. The crumbs for the middle-class will be taken in consumption. You guys don't care about working Americans your policies and actions don't bear this out.

You guys are irresponsible and argue in bad faith. Notice how you elide cutting or privatizing Social Security. You make absolute my claim that supply-side helped to bring the Republican near depression. Bad Faith.

Republicans are irresponsible . They've proven they can't govern nor are they good faith opposition. They are completely purchased tools who've tricked some of the people into thinking that they care about the country.

I mean Democrats aren't perfect, but you guys absolutely suck. Why don't you take your little 'we're not so bad arguments' to some Republicans who can vote on things that will help this country, that will and have even helped their districts.

Here's Rachel Maddow on these tools and their stimulus checks that they refused to vote for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXZg2cS99b0

We Are All Americans.

@perhapsnot1:

"Read Ryan's budget."

I did. Not only do I not like it, I think it's DOA. Never going to happen, nor should it. But Ryan is just one Republican.

"Of Course All Republicans want Tax cuts for the rich. Look at your Budget. That's what it says. The crumbs for the middle-class will be taken in consumption. You guys don't care about working Americans your policies and actions don't bear this out."

You're referring to Ryan's budget, right? And you do know that there isn't a Republican majority in either house, and that the president is a Democrat, right?

Cutting taxes for working Americans means Republicans don't care about them? But raising taxes on them, presumably, would? Interesting.

"Republicans are irresponsible . They've proven they can't govern nor are they good faith opposition."

This, I have to agree, is entirely true.

"They are completely purchased tools who've tricked some of the people into thinking that they care about the country."

Now you're talking about the Democrats, right?

"I mean Democrats aren't perfect, but you guys absolutely suck."

Well, good. Now that's settled.

"We Are All Americans."

Does that include me, or not? Because I can't tell.

"Does that include me"

That's the point isn't it. Of course it does. The President asked that enemies of democracy extend a hand not a fist. Well I put it to Republicans to consider their fists of disengenuousness and bad faith and obstinance for the sake not of the country but personal or party aggrandizement.

For instance. I conceded that some Democrats were on the gravy train and making it difficult to pass legislation that would help the country.

But as you know that was to make the point that Republicans in Totality have been doing this, some even against their direct constituent's interest.

In your dishonest response you chose to ignore that. Or how about the cutting of taxes for working Americans. The effects of a consumption tax would claw that back in addition to reduced services and increased healthcare costs. Its a con-game you guys have been playing on these rubes for decades.

And make no mistake I know who is in the White House.

Thank God it's not Republicans who would waste no time trying to implement the policies outlined in the Republican's signature economic document, The Social Security cutting, medicare and medicaid slashing, Corporate Welfare Ryan Budget.

If you don't like some of your party's ideas I hope you are on the phone to your representative's phone and imploring them to get on with helping to make this country work. I hope your telling them to quit the game playing and to work with the president and to be a real opposition party and not some kind of kickback criminal concern controlled by corporations.

more Obama: "...On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics"