Village Turns To Ryan For Slice Of Deficit Spending

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As first reported in the Lake Geneva News back in November, the Village of Sharon, just north of the Illinois border in Walworth County with a population of only 1,549, has enlisted Rep. Paul Ryan, of all people, for help to re-capture $600,000 in stimulus funds for a retention pond.

As noted in a post at Down With Tyranny and picked up again at Blogging Blue was the hypocrisy displayed by Ryan for joining in the fight with the village for deficit dollars. Ryan of course has been proudly fabricating a tea-bagging persona for himself as one of the most principled critics of the stimulus.

What we cannot do is borrow and spend our way into prosperity, building up huge federal deficits and calling it “stimulus.” -- Rep. Paul Ryan

Down With Tyranny Excerpt:
...many in Wisconsin were shocked when Ryan, who has told his reactionary financial supporters that he wants to repeal the stimulus, announced last week that he is "joining the village of Sharon to fight the loss of $547,000 in stimulus money used to build a storm-water retention system."

Just a few days ago, I received Ryan's constituent mailing titled "2009 Annual Report." Under the heading "Increased Government Spending and Increased Unemployment," Ryan has this to say about the stimulus...

"Since enactment of this legislation, however, unemployment reached 10 percent and more than 3 million jobs were lost."

Again, this was just two days ago. Ryan not only views the stimulus as deficit spending expansion, he actually equates the stimulus with increased unemployment. There's no turning back in my view. He deserves to be trapped by his flippantly partisan tone. And that's too bad for his constituents because they are the only ones who will suffer.

Blogging Blue Excerpt
He was against it before he was for it. Mr. Ryan, you can’t have it both ways. Do you think this flip flop will go unnoticed among your constituents?

Anyone who follows the slippery congressman and researched his broken record understands the hypocrisy here.

At this point, I do call into question Sharon officials knowledge of their congressman and whether they are aware of his anti-stimulus position. As far as Ryan is concerned, that retention pond would have been built anyways and it hasn't created any new jobs.

Yet, it gets very frustrating because, believe it or not, this episode with the Village of Sharon is made-to-order for a political grandstander like Paul Ryan. He lives for this stuff. In his view, this isn't about the stimulus, jobs or deficit spending. No siree. Instead, it's a perfect opportunity for him to gain more confidence and support from the little people in his district. With Ryan, this is all about advancing himself at the expense of government. That he can propagandize himself opposite of a incompetent executive bureaucracy and a government too big to keep it's promises is all the better in his view. Ryan in this case will make good by pulling the necessary strings to make good on the government's promise. It's win-win for him no matter what happens. Sharon will give him the key to the village if he gets the money, or a pat on the back and a cigar if he loses the "good" fight.

Either way, I can't wait to hear what the outcome is and the semantics Ryan incorporates to weasel his way through - it ought to be very entertaining.

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