Lunch with Paul Ryan


Today I attended the Economic Club of Chicago’s lunch with Paul Ryan as the featured speaker. He made some Packer-Bear jokes, but really gave a serious speech about vision for government. I would wholeheartedly support him for President, even though he is a Packer fan.

Congressman Ryan was clear spoken, factual, not political. Here are some quotes:

“The president says that only the richest people in America would be affected by his plan,” Ryan said, arguing that “class warfare may be clever politics, but it is terrible economics.”

“Sowing social unrest and class envy makes America weaker, not stronger,” the Wisconsin Republican argued, suggesting the “true sources of inequity” in America are corporate welfare and empty promises. He said the “real class warfare” that threatens Americans is “a class of governing elites picking winners and losers, and determining our destinies for us.”

“Health care costs spiraling out of control are driving the debt and must be dealt with. Yet the budget debate has degenerated into a game of green-eyeshade arithmetic, with many in Washington – including the president – demanding that we trade ephemeral spending restraints for large, permanent tax increases. This sets up a debate in which we are really just arguing over who to hurt and how best to manage the decline of our nation. It is a framework that accepts ever-higher taxes and bureaucratically rationed health care as givens.”

“A debt-fueled economic crisis will force massive tax increases on everyone and indiscriminate cuts on current beneficiaries – without giving them time to prepare or adjust,”

In his talking points, he deliberately mentioned the words, “crony capitalism”, and “managing scarcity” many times. Virtually no element of government would avoid the budget axe. He did make the point that in a time of war, it’s hard to cut certain defense items because we cannot abandon our soldiers when they are on the field of battle. But, he said many other programs could certainly be cut on the magnitude of 100 billion dollars or more.

The other critical thing he said was this. If you knew that a crisis was coming, and you did nothing to stop it, what does that say about the individual in charge? By the Congressional Budget Office estimates, Ryan says that we can’t go on as a country after 2037. The computers cannot compute what will happen to our debt, taxes and funding of government if we continue to operate at the same pace. That’s 25 years. The tax rates the computer spits out to pay for all this largesse: Bottom rate, 28%, middle income over 60%, top rate 88%.

We can’t afford all this government spending and fundamentally change the freedom and lifestyle we now enjoy in the US-unless we change today.

I really wish Paul Ryan would run for President. He understands America, American entrepreneurship, and has a positive vision for the country. As he said, “you never made money by shorting America.”

Others want to play class warfare games and talk of managing a declining pie. Why can’t we grow the pie? If we get our governments economic house in order, we certainly can.

It’s not rocket science. It’s what the net present value tables tell us what will happen. If we don’t fix it soon, we will choose to kill the America that we grew up with. Sad. But, if we choose to fix it today-we can leave an America that is even better than the one we grew up in!

Obama wants the Sesame Street Economic system. Government picks winners and losers and we use simple math.

Paul Ryan laid out a vision where we won’t have to choose in the future if we choose wisely today. Damn it, did I say I want him to run for President?


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

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