Paul Ryan: He’s one of us

Representative Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee and Mitt Romney’s running mate. (Joshua Roberts - BLOOMBERG) We have explained in previous articles why social conservatives are and should be behind Mitt Romney.  And now there is one more compelling reason: Paul Ryan.

The left hoped that conservative grassroots activists would not be fired up about this election. Their hopes have vanished; the right is downright excited to be working to elect the new Romney-Ryan ticket.

The representative from Wisconsin is well known in political circles as a federal deficit hawk, a budget expert and a fiscal policy wonk. But he is probably best known for taking on out of control entitlement spending to ensure that America’s safety net programs are sustainable (i.e. that they will be around when we retire) through what has become known as the “Ryan Budget.”

But what is less known, but equally important, is that Ryan is a social conservative and staunchly pro-life.

For Ryan, the two are inseparable: To be a fiscal conservative is to be a social conservative. As he put it, he is, “an unswerving proponent of both free market choice and the natural right to life.”

His commitment to family values is no less strong. As Ryan stated, “The American family must remain at the core of our free society, and I will remain ever-vigilant in its defense.” He has joined the American Center for Law and Justice in defense of our nation’s religious heritage, signing on to our amicus brief that defends our national motto, “In God We Trust.”

Pro-life groups across America have praised him for his unwavering commitment to protecting the lives of the unborn. Ryan has consistently scored a 100 percent pro-life rating in his 12 years in the House of Representatives, based on his voting record.

While his record speaks for itself, Ryan’s rhetoric makes it clear where he stands on these important issues. He told the Weekly Standard, "I’m as pro-life as a person gets." When there was a suggestion that the GOP should call a “truce” on social issues, Ryan emphatically stated: “It is a false choice to ask which natural right we should discard. ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' is not a menu of options.”  He continued, “You’re not going to have a truce. Judges are going to come up. Issues come up, they’re unavoidable, and I’m never going to not vote pro-life.”

Afew years ago, he laid out a compelling case for why “the cause of life can’t be severed from the cause of freedom.” In that pro-life thesis, he stated:

“The freedom to choose is pointless for someone who does not have the freedom to live. So the right of “choice” of one human being cannot trump the right to “life” of another. How long can we sustain our commitment to freedom if we continue to deny the very foundation of freedom—life—for the most vulnerable human beings?”

Ryan echoed these ideals when he was first introduced as Romney’s running mate. “Our rights come from nature and God, not from government,” he said. Ideals we have supported in an earlier “On Faith” piece on natural law.

If his own statements and response don’t tell enough, Planned Parenthood vehemently responded to Romney’s choice for vice president, stating, “Paul Ryan: we'll do whatever it takes to keep you from gaining the power to deny women access to [abortion].”

He is also someone who is not afraid to take on President Obama’s spin machine. He once told President Obama about his signature pro-abortion healthcare, stating that “hiding spending does not reduce spending.”

Moreover, he has taken the president to task over his abortion-pill HHS mandate, stating,“This is much, much bigger than about contraception. This is about religious freedom, First Amendment rights, and how this progressive philosophy of fungible rights of a living breathing constitution really clashes and collides with these core rights that we built our society and country around.”

The choice could not be clearer for America.  It is either a presidential ticket that promises more taxpayer funding for abortion and abortion businesses, opposes traditional marriage, builds more debt, and espouses the “you didn’t build that” mentality of more, bigger government, or a ticket that is pro-life, pro-family values, seeks to lessen the burden of debt and deficit on future generations, and promotes the ideals of freedom and the American Dream.  It is the Romney-Ryan vision that social conservatives, and in reality most Americans, can get behind.

Our nation’s current economic problems are moral problems too.

As the ACLJ’s chief counsel recently said, “we have the perfect CEO [Romney] and the perfect CFO [Ryan],” ready to get America’s economy back on track in a way all Christian conservatives know takes more than good economic plans, it takes good moral leaders to get there.