Robert Reich: Paul Ryan’s Faux Populism

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http://robertreich.org/post/29638134341

On Friday, Paul Ryan, the presumptive Republican vice-presidential nominee, made the most populist speech of this campaign season.

“It’s the people who are politically connected, it’s the people who have access to Washington that get the breaks,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of over 2,000 at a high school gym in Virginia.

“Well, no more. We don’t want to pick winners and losers in Washington… . Hardworking taxpayers should be treated fairly and it should be based on whether they’re good, whether they work hard and not who they know in Washington. That’s entrepreneurialism. That’s free enterprise.”

Sounds good, but earlier this week – three days after being picked as Romney’s running-mate – Ryan went to Las Vegas to pay homage to Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who is the poster boy for using money to become “politically connected” in Washington, and getting the “breaks” that come with it. Adelson has promised to donate up to $100 million to make sure Romney and Ryan are in the White House next year.

(snip)
Ryan is correct when he says “it’s the people who are politically connected, it’s the people who have access to Washington that get the breaks.”

But his faux populism obscures the main point. A much smaller government still dominated by money would continue to do the bidding of billionaires like casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, energy moguls like the Koch bothers, military contractors, and other high rollers now actively trying to put Ryan and Romney into the White House.

It just wouldn’t do anything for the rest of us.

[LiveNudePolitics]

1. I could not agree more

It's like a large portion of the media devoted to election coverage are devoted to shoring up the myth that he's a tough, straight shooter who will finally make things fair for the beleaguered rich folks, in the tax bracket Joe Six-pack thinks he will belong to someday. It would not have anything to do with the will of a few billionaires funneling money into both sides of the race to get their desired will done, now would it? http://livenudepolitics.com/?p=2161

[highplainsdem]

2. K&R