"I want to Push Back On The Notion of Paul Ryan as a Serious Man"

Says Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed! H/T Crooks & Liars!

MR. REED: I want to push back on this notion of Paul Ryan as a serious man. He b-- he voted for every budget b-- busting measure under President Bush. He voted for TARP. He asked for money under the American Recovery and Investment Act. He voted for both wars. He put Medicare on a credit card, and then all of a sudden in last 24 months, he’s developing the stature as a serious guy, so I want to push back on that… GREGORY: Well, so why… MR. REED: …and then in terms of this week-- and then in terms of this week, he has underperformed Sarah Palin. He’s contributed about a one percent bump, and according to Gallup, the Republican pick for Vice President typically performs at about five points.

Paul Ryan as Harvey Dent!

H/t Boston Globe: 

In 2009, as Rep. Paul D. Ryan was railing against President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package as a “wasteful spending spree,” he wrote at least four letters to Obama’s secretary of energy asking that millions of dollars from the program be granted to a pair of Wisconsin conservation groups, according to documents obtained by the Globe.

 The documents show that Ryan’s attempts to take advantage of the stimulus funds even after he voted against them was more expansive than previously reported. Ryan was criticized by some House Democrats in 2010 after the Wall Street Journal reported that he was among several Republicans lawmakers who sought the stimulus money for their constituents by, in his case, writing a letter in 2010 to the Department of Labor.

 The additional letters include his praise for the energy program’s aims, and clash with his own budget priorities, which call for curtailing many of the same Department of Energy investments that are designed to spur the growth of green technologies and reduce reliance on fossil fuels..

How so very fiscally conservative of him..... How so very " tea party" of him.  yet as we like to say here @ Cog Dis...but wait there is more.   It turns out that Paul Ryan (R- Wall St.) has more in common with Harvey Dent than one would think! 

This trillion dollar spending bill misses the mark on all counts,” said Ryan in a statement from his office. “This is not a crisis we can spend and borrow our way out of – that is how we got here in the first place.”   Heads! 

 It turns out that one of the biggest "spending interests" out there is Paul Ryan.

 But the biggest payoff came for the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation. Ryan predicted the $20 million grant would be able to “create or retain approximately 7,600 new jobs over the three-year grant period and the subsequent three years.” Tails

 “All this temporary booster shot stimulus didn’t work in the stimulus package, didn’t work when the last administration tried these things, so we don’t want to go with ideas that have proven to fail, we want ideas that have proven to succeed,” he said in an interview on MSNBC in September 2011. “I think tax reform is the key.”  Heads

 “I was pleased that the primary objectives of their project will allow residents and businesess in the partner cities to reduce their energy costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and stimulate the local economy by creating new jobs,” Ryan wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu on December 18, 2009, on behalf of the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation.  Tails

Paul ryan is a fiscal conservative -  Heads 

Paul ryan's voting record is no where near fiscally conservative.   Other departures from small-government orthodoxy by Ryan include his support of President George W. Bush’s Medicare prescription drug program, the TARP bailout of Wall Street, and the auto bailout.   Tails! 

Paul Ryan Was Incredibly, Unimaginably, Inconceivably, Lucky...

Boy Did his coincidence help him cash in!

It should probably come as no surprise to anyone that someone like Paul Ryan would trade on inside information gained through his position as a congressman to line his pockets, but this particular instance is especially egregious. Ryan attended a closed meeting with congressional leaders, Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on September 18, 2008. The purpose of the meeting was to disclose the coming economic meltdown and beg Congress to pass legislation to help collapsing banks.

Instead of doing anything to help, Ryan left the meeting and on that very same day Paul Ryan sold shares of stock he owned in several troubled banks and reinvested the proceeds in Goldman Sachs, a bank that the meeting had disclosed was not in trouble. This is the guy Republicans want one heartbeat away from the presidency? He seems more than a little shady to me.

All of the relevant documents are located here at The Richmonder! This on top the fact that as his influence on the budget committee grows, so does his personal wealth and stake in mining interests! Then you realize why he had this to say about TARP:

"Madam Speaker, this bill offends my principles, but I'm gonna vote for this bill in order to preserve my principles." This Ryan flip-flop comes from his 2008 House floor speech in support of TARP, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package.

Then you wonder how someone as unethical and dishonest as Paul Ryan(R-Wall St.) can come from WI.

EDITORS NOTE: SInce there is a chance that this has been proven wrong(see comments under tpm link), I decided to give the congressman the benefit of the doubt. So i changed the title to this post and acknowledge that maybe he is so busy helping his Mines grow in profit with his influence he has not had time or the expertise to engage in insider trading.