Election 2012: Master Archives

Paul Ryan explains his opposition to auto bailout, revealing inner wonk

By Vincent P. Bzdek

Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney newly anointed running mate, on Thursday made it clear that he shares the presidential candidate’s strong views about President Obama’s bailout of the auto industry. He thinks it was a bad idea.

View Photo Gallery: Romney and Ryan are on a four-day bus trip that is taking the White House hopefuls to four key swing states: Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.

“It didn’t help Janesville,” he said of his Wisconsin hometown during an interview with ABC affiliate 9News in Oxford, Ohio. “They shut our plant down. It didn’t help Kenosha. I represent there; they shut down the Chrysler plant.”

In a reflex that has occurred frequently since he began campaigning a week ago, Ryan drew heavily on his inner wonk to explain his view.

“What I voted for was to prevent a worse bailout,” he said. “I voted for that bill to prevent TARP from being used to bail out the auto companies at more than three times the cost of that original legislation. And where I come from, where we lost four auto factories – two Delphi, a Chrysler and a GM plant – the auto bailout didn’t work for us.”

Paul Ryan taking Medicare battle to Florida retirement community over weekend

This post has been updated.

WARREN, Ohio – How serious is the Romney campaign about seizing the offense in the Medicare battle?

The campaign is dispatching Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, to a Florida retirement community this weekend.

Ryan will headline a campaign event at 10 a.m. Saturday in The Villages, the sprawling retirement community frequented by GOP candidates, including by Romney during this year’s primary battle.
Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) greets the crowd at a campaign stop at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, on Thursday. (Phil Long - AP)

Paul Ryan stops for hot dogs in Ohio

Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Republican vice presidential hopeful, at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., on August 12. (SaulLoeb - AFP/Getty Images)

WARREN, Ohio — At a campaign stop at a northeast Ohio hot dog joint Thursday afternoon, Paul Ryan defended his and Mitt Romney’s claim that President Obama “raided” $716 billion from Medicare to pay for the national health-care law.

Ryan’s budget blueprint includes virtually all of the same Medicare savings as Obama’s health-care overhaul does. The GOP vice presidential nominee deflected the criticism Thursday by arguing that the $716 billion in Medicare savings were part of the budget baseline used by House Republicans in drafting their 2012 budget blueprint, and that Republicans would never have sought those cuts in the first place.

Paul Ryan: China is treating Obama ‘like a doormat’

U.S. Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates Mitt Romney, left, and Paul Ryan wave after a campaign rally at the Harris Pavilion in Manassas on Aug. 11. (Saul Loeb - AFP/Getty Images)

NORTH CANTON, Ohio – Rep. Paul Ryan had some tough talk Thursday for President Obama on China, arguing that the White House has been too lenient when it comes to the country’s trade and currency policy.

“President Obama said he’d go to the mat with China,” Ryan (R-Wis.) told a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters at Walsh University, a small Catholic college in North Canton. “Instead, they’re treating him like a doormat. We’re not going to let that happen.”

Ryan made the remark on the morning of his sixth day as GOP vice-presidential nominee, and on the fourth leg of a tour that has taken him to solo events in Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and Ohio.

Paul Ryan on Medicare: ‘We will win this debate’

By Felicia Sonmez and Amy Gardner

View Photo Gallery: Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan is the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

OXFORD, OHIO — Paul Ryan spoke about the issue of Medicare for the first time since being tapped as Mitt Romney’s running mate, telling a crowd of more than 1,000 people Wednesday night at his alma mater, Ohio’s Miami University, that the conversation is one that Republicans welcome.

“The president, I’m told, is talking about Medicare today,” said Ryan, who graduated from the school in 1992 with a B.A. in economics and political science. “We want this debate. We need this debate. And we will win this debate.”

As Republicans have done in recent days, Ryan took aim at Obama for $716 billion in Medicare Advantage savings and cuts to providers over the next decade brought about through the national health care law, arguing that the White House “raided it to pay for Obamacare.”

Romney has said he would restore the $716 billion, and Ryan supports that plan.

But Ryan offered no details about his own proposal to overhaul Medicare, a part of his budget blueprint that has become a flash point in the presidential campaign. Ryan said only that he and Romney “will protect and strengthen Medicare for our current seniors and for our future seniors of tomorrow.”

Paul Ryan, Sheldon Adelson greeted by hundreds of protesters in Las Vegas

Protesters, mostly made up of union members and political groups, picket in front of the Venetian hotel-casino in Las Vegas, where Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was meeting with casino owner Sheldon Adelson and other supporters Aug. 14. (Steve Marcus - Reuters)

LAS VEGAS – Paul Ryan got a raucous welcome here Tuesday night – though perhaps not the welcome he was expecting.

Several hundred protesters gathered outside the Venetian Hotel here to demonstrate as Ryan, the newly minted GOP vice presidential nominee, met inside with casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, 2010 GOP Senate hopeful Sue Lowden and about three dozen other top donors.

“Ryan, go home! Ryan, go home!” the sea of demonstrators chanted as they marched in a circle around the fountain outside the hotel.

Paul Ryan: GOP message is not ‘vote for me by default’

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Paul Ryan on Tuesday rallied a raucous crowd of supporters at a high school here, making the case on his fourth day as Mitt Romney’s running mate that the GOP ticket is one of ideas, not just an alternative to President Obama.

“You see, we’re not going to go to people in this country and say, ‘The other guy is so bad that you have to vote for me by default,’” Ryan said in remarks at Palo Verde High School.

The theme of the event was housing; Ryan touched on the topic only briefly, though, before launching as he did earlier in the day into a broader critique of Obama’s handling of the country’s economy.

Paul Ryan slams Obama on energy policy as Romney camp prepares to roll out Medicare ad