But Ryan is trying -- a bit clumsily, but trying all the same -- to borrow a page from the Massachusetts senator as he seeks to remake himself in anticipation of a potential 2016 run for the Republican presidential nomination. He's talking about poverty, about inequality, about shifting the focus away from meeting the demands of corporations and toward meeting the needs of Americans.
Mitt Romney's running mate is abandoning Romneyism for populism -- or what former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has referred to as "Paul Ryan's Faux Populism."
Instead of repeating the Mittnomers of 2012 -- "Corporations are people, my friend" -- Ryan is suddenly informing fellow conservatives, "There's another fallacy popular among our ranks. Just as some think anything government does is wrong, others think anything business does is right. But in fact they're two sides of the same coin. Both big government and big business like to stack the deck in their favor. And though they are sometimes adversaries, they are far too often allies."
It is hard to argue with Ryan's reasoning. Populists and progressives have warned for more than a century that corporations are "boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power." The author of those words, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Edward Ryan, asked in 1873: "Which shall rule -- wealth or man; which shall lead -- money or intellect; who shall fill public stations -- educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?" Elizabeth Warren confirmed Ryan's worst fears when she addressed Netroots Nation last week and declared, "The game is rigged and the rich and the powerful have lobbyists and lawyers and plenty of friends in Congress. Everybody else, not so much."
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And now, Paul Ryan is on-message, announcing as only a career politician can, that "our country has had enough of politics." He's proposing to "reconceive the federal government's role in the fight against poverty." And he is even ripping corporations, decrying the way in which big government has become "a willing accomplice" of big business.
Ryan explained last week at Hillsdale College's Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship session that "crony capitalism isn't a side effect; it's a direct result of big government."
Grab the pitchforks!
But don't look for Paul Ryan on the front lines of actual fights to reduce inequality or address injustice.
The House Budget Committee chairman, who on Thursday released an "anti-poverty proposal" that rehashed decades-old schemes to scale back anti-poverty initiatives and regulatory protections for low-income Americans, offers scant evidence of a serious determination to solve the problems that have got Americans up in arms. If Ryan was serious, he wouldn't be proposing, as his "Opportunity Grant" plan does, to "consolidate" existing federal programs to aid the poor into block grants to the states -- an approach that would allow Republican governors who have already shown a penchant for undermining healthcare, food-stamp and education initiatives the "flexibility" to do even more harm.
Congressman Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who serves with Ryan on the Budget Committee, nails it when he warns about a proposal that "uses the sunny language of 'reform' as a guise to cut vital safety-net programs."
Marian Wright Edelman was even blunter.
"House Budget Chair Paul Ryan's draft is a small, mean and worn idea that picks on poor children and families while not asking for one cent of sacrifice from rich corporations and rich individuals. His proposal would dismantle the safety net that is working," said the president of the Children's Defense Fund, who ticked off federal programs that would be threatened by Ryan's scheme. "Head Start works, it gets poor children ready for school. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) works, it keeps the wolves of hunger at bay. Title I works, the funds are going to help our most disadvantaged schools and students, but the funds need to be increased and accountability tightened. I look forward to the next draft from Chairman Ryan that is fair to poor children and families and asks the rich corporations and individuals to pay their fair share."
Edelman could end up waiting for a long time, as the congressman has not coupled his momentarily populist rhetoric with anything akin to a call for corporate responsibility or fair taxation.
So if Ryan is not really worried about holding corporations to account, and if he is not evidencing a serious intent address the problem of inequality, what is on his mind?
