Statements of Economic Interest (SEI) recently released by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), when compared to previous years’ SEI show a clear pattern – the more influence he has on the Congressional Budget process, the more stake he (through his wife Janna (nee Little)) has gained in Oklahoma mining interests. This family interest is led by Ryan’s father-in-law, Dan Little; and is currently making millions leasing rights to energy giants engaging in extensive natural gas shale fracking.
The financial conflicts at work here are direct. Ryan’s budget gives $43 Billion in tax breaks to the companies and processes the Little family (and Ryan) profit from. The policy conflict is the expansion of fracking, which the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is promoting through powerful Legislators like Ryan.
You might ask yourself how could someone who is making a very decent wage of $174/k yr, turn that into becoming a millionaire in a matter of ten years! The answer is simple, control the budget of the United States!
Ryan is getting away with clear financial conflicts of interest. The worse crime is complete rejection of potential social, safety and environmental impact to pursue profit at any cost. Ryan is using his powerful position to forward a fiscal and regulatory agenda from which he personally has, and will continue to reap enormous profit. In 1998, none of this interest was reported by Ryan – now, the value is nearly $1 Million and growing…thanks to Ryan’s inside operations.
Give Scott @ BD credit for reaching out and getting a response from Ryan's office(I have tried on numerous occassions and have never received even a response). By the way, Ryan's response when asked about this:
He would rather not talk about it:
"Our office doesn’t comment on the financial disclosures any further than what is available publicly. Appreciate your reaching out."Maybe a REPORTER who has access to Ryan on a regular basis could get this explained and maybe while they were at it, they could get an explanation on WHY this is even legal!
Smythe Anderson
One last thing to remember, Ryan (from economically devastated Janesville, WI) is the one who wanted to end unemployment benefits!
Yes what a stand-up Catholic paul ryan is!
Cross Posted @ The Paul Ryan Watch, where there is everything you wanted to know about Paul Ryan and the Janesville Gazette was scared to tell you!
What a sweet scam!
ReplyDeleteAll while positioning himself as a "fiscal conservative" and tea party darling.....
ReplyDeleteThe more these "secrets" get out, the better. Those "swing" voters really need to be better educated with regards to the games being played by the conservative thief's of today's republican party.
ReplyDeleteGotta elect Rob Zerban!
ReplyDeleteFrom what I see it is a tax break for companies in general. Ryan's, and Little's, family happen to be connected to some of these companies, as are many others. I'm pretty sure you'd be able to connect numerous democrats to these companies as well and they too are profiting from these deals just as much.
ReplyDeleteEver notice that 58% of politicians are millionaires with a pretty even split between republicans and democrats? Most of these people have never worked a day outside of public office yet are millionaires. Think about it.
Quit fighting right vs. left, republican vs. democrat, liberal vs. conservative, etc. The real problem is that these politicians have stopped representing the people and are only interested in themselves.