Seems like the Pope Has Conservative Paul Ryan Rattled

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/paul-ryan-lectures-pope-about-capitalism



When 1.3 million Americans lose their unemployment benefits on Saturday, they can thank Rep. Paul Ryan. He took the lead in negotiating a bipartisan budget deal with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, and on behalf of his party, held the line against continuing extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

Sure, a lot of Republicans share blame with Ryan. But he deserves extra-special (negative) credit for the deal, because he has lately had the audacity to depict himself as the new face of “compassionate conservatism,” insisting Republicans must pay attention to the problems of the poor. Friends say the man who once worshipped Ayn Rand now takes Pope Francis as his moral role model. Except he can’t help treating his new role model with arrogance and contempt.

It’s true that while knuckle-draggers like Rush Limbaugh attack the pope as a Marxist, Ryan has praised him, which I guess takes a tiny bit of courage since normally Republicans don’t like to buck the leader of their party. “What I love about the pope is he is triggering the exact kind of dialogue we ought to be having,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “People need to get involved in their communities to make a difference, to fix problems soul to soul.”

But he couldn’t suppress either his right-wing politics or his supreme capacity for condescension for very long. “The guy is from Argentina, they haven’t had real capitalism in Argentina,” Ryan said (referring to the pope as “the guy” is a nice folksy touch.) “They have crony capitalism in Argentina. They don’t have a true free enterprise system.”

[CanonRay]

1. Not like here, where we have no "crony capitalism"

is that the idea Paul? We have pure free market capitalism, is that what you're saying? Jeez, is he full of shit.

[jsr]

3. +1

[quaker bill]

2. Ryan misses the message

you do not fix systemic problems with income distribution "soul to soul". The problem that the Pope identifies came to exist through republican efforts to create a "true free enterprise system".

In fact, a "true free enterprise system" is not what they created. They created a finance dominated corporate enterprise system. When they are done, everything will be a commodity, and perhaps there will be futures contracts, options, and derivatives for everything...

[Kingofalldems]

4. Real Capitalism---Well it's Pinochet capitalism of course.

[GeorgeGist]

5. If only we had an organization to coordinate our social responsibilities.

[Berlum]

6. Christ feeds & loves the poor and hungry. Republicons kick them in the ass.

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[Squinch]

9. That one stopped me dead in my scroll! It's an awful and truthful image.

[JDPriestly]

7. THEY have crony capitalism in Argentina? What does Ryan think we have?

Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of dirigisme.[1] Crony capitalism is believed to arise when political cronyism spills over into the business world; self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals.

The term "crony capitalism" made a significant impact in the public arena as an explanation of the Asian financial crisis.[2] It is also used world wide to describe virtually any governmental decisions favoring "cronies" of governmental officials. In many cases, the term is used interchangeably with corporate welfare; to the extent that there is a difference, the latter might be restricted only to direct government subsidies of major corporations, excluding tax loopholes and all manner of regulatory and trade decisions, which in practice could be much larger than any direct subsidies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism

The TPP negotiations are just one huge example of American crony capitalism. The special tax breaks for oil and other very profitable businesses are another example. Just look at the huge number of lobbyists for big business in D.C. and you cannot deny that our crony capitalism is the biggest crony capitalism of them all.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Ryan says about Francis what many DUers say about him as an opening:

“What I love about the pope is he is triggering the exact kind of dialogue we ought to be having."

Then he goes on to do what some DUers also do, misrepresent Argentina and Francis's career history there in order to strike an agenda driven talking point. In Argentina, Francis was Mr Anti Gay, raging and ranting and using twisted language against good people to make political headway, he attained the throne in the end. Ryan would agree with most of what Francis said in Argentina. Ryan has himself said much of it already.