House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, among the top five potential GOP vice presidential picks, on Wednesday dubbed President Obama a liar who is distorting Republican positions on the economy, jobs and health care to distract the nation from the administration’s failures. But, said the Wisconsin Republican, Obama’s effort ultimately aimed at beating Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will fail because the public will “see through all of this demagoguery.”
Still, the Romney advisor admitted, “It’s hard to compete with somebody who is not anchored in the truth. It’s hard to compete with somebody who is willing to just make up an assumption in order to come up with a talking point to distort a record in order to distract people.”
While not using the L word, Ryan said that the president goes out of his way to lie about GOP positions to make them sound bad and hide his lack of a better plan. For example, said Ryan, in speeches by Obama about the Republican jobs plan, “there is not a single statistic in the president’s speech that is accurate.”
He accused the president of following the “Chicago school of politics.” Ryan described that as, “divide the country into groups so that your coalition is 50 percent plus one and you can win.” He added, “what sounds weird is that this is coming from the president of the United States, it’s very unpresidential.”
Ryan’s comments at a joint Heritage Foundation-American Spectator symposium were his harshest yet and demonstrate the frustration the GOP has with Obama. Ryan also expressed disappointment in Democratic Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad who went back on promises to produce the first budget in the chamber in three years. “It’s a do-nothing Senate and an active House,” said Ryan.
Ever since the lawmaker squired Romney through Wisconsin on the eve of the state’s Republican primary, which Romney romped in, Ryan has been high on the list of potential running mates. He dismissed the speculation, but his aggressive tone with Obama added to his budget expertise could give him an edge over others Team Romney is considering.
Ryan said that Romney has the right message to beat Obama, and he said that Republicans will canvas the nation in the fall to give the country a choice on the future of the nation. “Let’s go to the country with a referendum,” he said.
