The Brawler's said it before and he'll say it again: Paul Ryan is a fraud. On Iraq, on fiscal conservatism (i.e., voting for the Bush prescription drug bill is not fiscal conservatism), on "entitlement" reform, the man is a standard GOP hack who gets portrayed as a visionary. Could it be because of his hair (and how much does he spend on that conk?)? The Brawler won't speculate.
In the latest installment of why Paul Ryan -- an Americans for Prosperity Hero of the Taxpayer -- is a hack, let's take a look at a subject near and dear to his heart. Earmarks. Ryan hates earmarks, seeing them as a symptom of Washington's spending problem. Indeed, he cast himself as the successor to the great Proxmire, who introduced the golden fleece awards for wasteful fed guv spending, by unveiling the "budget boondoggle awards" blasting earmarks in October 2007.
Now, not only did he have the gall to claim the mantle of Proxmire despite voting for budgets and pork-laden defense bills that have sunk us deeper into the hole.
Ryan also launched this award despite taking money from one of the biggest "Earmarxists" (as the Wall Street Journal calls them) on Capitol Hill: Don Young.
That'd be the Alaskan congressman who has spent more than $1 million on lawyers to defend himself in a federal corruption probe and was a player in the fantastic "bridge to nowhere" boondoggle. He also operates a political action committee called Midnight Sun.
And in March 2007, Midnight Sun doled out $5,000 to Paul Ryan.
(And should the Brawler note that goo-goo group Taxpayers for Common Sense -- an organization that likely would be dearer to Proxmire's heart -- awarded Young the "golden fleece award" for the bridge to nowhere?)
How much of a corrupt hack is Young? So much a corrupt hack that even Grover Norquist, whose "Americans" for Tax Reform once named him a "Hero of the Taxpayer" (a positively Stalinist title, btw), is now throwing him under the bus.
Why would Young give $5,000 -- as much as he gave to anybody -- to Paul Ryan? The Brawler is sure it had nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to do with the fact that Young and Ryan collaborated in 2005 to help push through legislation helping Dennis Troha's trucking company. Troha, of course, gave big to both gentlemen.
But the bigger question is why would Ryan. Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Smith reborn, even accept money from a corrupt pol like Young?
Just in: The Racine Post notes that Paul Ryan is a liar (h/t Pundit Nation).
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