I originally published this diary earlier today under the title, "Paul Ryan Asks Rally If Congress Know 2008 Crash was coming and did nothing to stop it?" I finally tracked down an article about the quote that I posted earlier. I only saw the first part live on MSNBC just before a cut to a commercial, where Ryan asked a lot of questions. Now, I have learned that I am guilty of taking Ryan out of context. He was trying to say that those questions he was asking were about what's going on right now, not what happened in 2008.
Here's what I originally posted:
I have MSNBC on in the background while working. I had to stop and rewind when I heard Paul Ryan speaking. This is what he said:
The point is, when that crisis hit us, it caught us all by surprise. Trillions of dollars of wealth from families, from retirements, were vanished. Millions of people out of work, which we were still suffering from. What if your President, or your Congressman, or your Senator ... What if they saw it coming? What if they knew that that crash was coming? What if they knew why it was going to happen? What if they knew approximately when it was gong to happen, and what if they knew how to prevent it from happening and they had the time to do that but they just decided not to because it wasn't good politics?
The clip I saw was Paul Ryan speaking live at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was played just before a commercial break, so I didn't hear what answers, if any, Paul Ryan offered to his hypothetical questions. The segment that this clip followed has been posted online by MSNBC, but they cut this clip from the end. I will continue to look for the video.
What If? or Some People Say...
It sounds like Paul Ryan is taking a page out of the Fox News playbook when they constantly say "Some people say..."
Paul Ryan is a Republican speaking in front of what one would assume was a crowd of people who also identify themselves as Republicans. By asking all these "What if" questions, there is an implication that it was the other party that knew the crash was coming and did nothing to stop it. But, the crash happened in 2008. The President in 2008 was George W. Bush. Also, Paul Ryan himself was a congressman in 2008 and Paul Ryan Unloaded His AIG Shares Before Crash of 2008. What a Genius!
Just another example of the say anything to get elected Republican candidate? After all, Paul Ryan didn't actually say that all these things were known at the time, he just asked, "What If?"
Now, I know the
rest of the story. The point Ryan was trying to make was:
Friends, that's exactly where we are today, we are on this path that the president has placed us upon where we will turn out just like Europe if we stick with these European policies.
I guess since Romney's trip to England turned into
#RomneyShambles, and therefore Romney has given up on wanting to
rebuild the special relationship, building on 'an Anglo-Saxon heritage', that the Romney/Ryan ticket is back to bashing Europe. I don't understand this at all. It's Ryan and Romney who want to use the austerity measures that are failing in Europe. It's President Obama that's against that course of action.
So now Ryan is spewing the meme that we're on a path for another crash worse than the 2008 Crash, unless Romney/Ryan are elected. At that point they will restore the same Bush policies (except, you know, on steroids with more austerity and more tax cuts for the rich) that caused the 2008 Crash. This makes less sense the my original interpretation of the first part of the quote.
Ryan portrayed himself and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as leaders who will tackle hard decisions. But Ryan himself has passed up opportunities to take a bipartisan stab at getting a handle on soaring debt. His criticism helped derail efforts by the Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators, to come up with a compromise proposal. And in 2010, he helped sink a plan that would have cut the federal debt by $3.8 trillion over 10 years.
Ryan says Obama, Congress turning blind eye to coming fiscal crisis
Now that Ryan is on the presidential ticket, does he expect us to forget that he is a member of the current Congress and serves as a leader in the House of Representatives that is in the majority? That House that was voted into office on the promise of "jobs, jobs, jobs" but has placed a priority on passing legislation about "abortion, abortion, abortion?"
Is this the new normal for Romney/Ryan? Let's just ignore the disasters Bush and Republicans caused. Move along. Nothing to see by looking back at history. Let's just start from where we are right now. The entire country should come down with amnesia and completely forget what happened from 2001 to 2008. How we got where we are isn't important, despite the fact that it's an improvement over where Bush left us. Nope. First, it was we weren't climbing out the hole Bush dug for us fast enough. Now, it's we're just in a hole because of President Obama and only Romney/Ryan know how to dig us out of it ... but, they won't tell us exactly how ... we just need to trust them because, you know, Republicans are such great stewards of our government.