John Boehner: Paul Ryan Didn’t Oppose TARP Like Those ‘Knuckledraggers’
This is unlikely to make the GOP base happy:
VAN SUSTEREN, FOX News: People think of him as hawkish on the budget, on expenses, but he voted for TARP. He voted for the auto bailout, voted for two stimulus in ’08, voted against the ’09 — February ’09 President Obama stimulus. How does — I mean, how does he explain those, or I mean, how does — politically, how does he sell that?
BOEHNER: I mean, I think that he’s a practical conservative. He’s got a very conservative voting record, but he’s not a knuckle-dragger, all right? He understood that TARP, while none of us wanted to do it, if we were going to save — save our economy, save the world economy, it had to happen. I wish we didn’t have to do it, either, but he understood that.
So, he _votes_ exactly like the “knuckle-draggers”, but he doesn’t brag about it, so that makes him a “reasonable Republican”?
Yeah, that sounds about right.
I don’t agree with the depiction of everyone who disagreed with TARP as knuckledraggers, but Boehner was right. TARP was a horribly drawn up law, and could have done a lot more good than it did had it been actually targeted toward spending with actually stimulative effects, but it was necessary.
@Solomon Kleinsmith:
I think you are confusing TARP with the stimulus. TARP was the bank bailout. Which, for me, does fall into the “sucky but necessary” category.
@Rob in CT:
Tarp also could have been done differently. The Swedes nationalized failed banks, fixed them up, and sold them off again.
I think that was better, but certainly more nimble than we could have been.
TARP “saved” the global economy about the same way that smoking crystal meth cures a hangover.
That aside, 1+1 does not = 3 and there are differences between literal statements and colloquial and figurative statements, especially in the context of verbal colloquies. I doubt Boehner intended to say in the literal sense that if you opposed TARP that ipso facto you’re a knuckledragger. But in any event the gist of what he’s saying is manifest: Ryan’s definitely a conservative but he’s not quite the boogeyman the Democrat-mass media complex will make him out to be.
@Tsar Nicholas:
Anyone who said “let the banks go broke” without a plan beyond FDIC insurance, was a knuckle-dragger.
What makes Ryan an actual conservative?
I really can’t figure that out.
I would never call someone who voted for pretty much everything that started this massive debt problem in the United States, and then miraculously changed positions on 01/20/2009 with the changing of the guard, a real conservative.
I would more or less call them a fraud and a liar, but hey, that may just be me.
Boehner Translation: Ryan is a hypocrite just like me and most of the House Delegation.
@john personna:
Oh, I totally agree. TARP needed to come with strings attached. And teeth. Big. Pointy. Teeth.
Of all the GOP complaints the past four years, the two biggest are probably Obamacare and bailouts. And now they’ve nominated Romney and Ryan?
@al-Ameda:
I’d like to see Boehner and Ryan lose to more moderate folk, but I’ll take them over more genuine Teas.
@john personna:
Yes. That what was done in Brazil in the 90´s(And yes, it was politically toxic). The drawback of this decision is that European banks like Santander and HSBC ended buying a lot of these failed banks. But, no, the old owners were not rewarded for bankrupting banks.
Here’s an article from some time ago where Ryan started kicking back against the Beckites and Ronulans.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/85108/paul-ryan-slams-uninformed-conservative-colleagues
I suspect it will be proved that time will shorten those arms and nostril’s will be used for more than just picking. Time behind real desks with real information in front of them and having to answer real questions from real people.
Twain: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
Nor is he the fiscal hero that “conservative” knuckledraggers make him out to be…