abraham beem new yorker magazine fiscal crisis

In 20, many of Ryan’s older Republican colleagues were thrown out of office as a result of lobbying scandals and overspending. In all, five trillion dollars was added to the national debt. At the time, as a junior member with little clout, Ryan was a reliable Republican vote for policies that were key in causing enormous federal budget deficits: sweeping tax cuts, a costly prescription-drug entitlement for Medicare, two wars, the multibillion-dollar bank-bailout legislation known as TARP.

Like many young conservatives, he is embarrassed by the Bush years. Ryan won his seat in 1998, at the age of twenty-eight. Asked to explain his opposition to Obama’s newly released budget, he replied, “I don’t have that much time.” Tall and wiry, with a puff of wavy dark hair, he is nearly as well known in Washington for his punishing early-morning workouts as he is for his mastery of the federal budget. Ryan’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all died before their sixtieth birthdays, so Ryan, who is now forty-two, could be forgiven if he seemed like a man in a hurry. Hunched forward in his chair, he rattled off well-rehearsed critiques of the new President’s policies and America’s lurch toward a “European” style of government. One day in March, 2009, two months after the Inauguration of President Obama, Representative Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, sat behind a small table in a cramped meeting space in his Capitol Hill office. “If you’re going to criticize, you should propose,” Ryan says of his budget plan.

Abraham beem new yorker magazine fiscal crisis