[img_assist|nid=22099|title=Paul Ryan|desc=Ryan's road show|link=none|align=left|width=199|height=108]Maybe this is progress, of a strange sort.
Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican House budget chairman, responding to citizens at a couple more of the contentious town hall meetings he's held, said he favors dropping federal subsidies to oil companies, which are ringing up record profits. The lead of a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story:
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U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan may not agree with President Barack Obama on a lot of things, but he indicated Thursday during town hall meetings [in Oak Creek] and in Watertown that he agrees oil subsidies should end.
Ryan, a Janesville Republican, responded to questions about oil company subsidies in the context of his support for ending "corporate welfare."
"We're talking about reforming the safety net, the welfare system; we also want to get rid of corporate welfare," Ryan had said in both Oak Creek and Waterford.
#444444;">Oh, do we really, now? The record actually shows that just in this short year alone, Ryan voted the other way, and more than once. As the progressive web site ThinkProgress.org noted, "#000000;">Ryan voted twice this year to actually extend subsidies to oil companies, once on a motion to recommit on a shorter-term continuing resolution and again when he supported an amendment to the initial House CR. The Ryan budget, meanwhile, doesn’t specifically target oil subsidies, but only generally promises to end “corporate welfare.” #000000;">[URL below]
#444444; padding: 0px;">#000000;">In a followup, ThinkProgress added#000000;">: "#000000;">Ryan spokesperson Conor Sweeney told The Hill this afternoon that Ryan's budget `obviously' ends tax breaks for big oil companies, yet mysteriously also said Ryan has `made clear we are not for raising taxes' -- the talking point House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has used to defend oil subsidies."
#444444; padding: 0px;">But the only thing that's really clear in all this is how situational and casual Ryan's political ethic is in all this. It's just like when he last ran for office and decried the loss of jobs in his southern border Wisconsin district, after vigorously backing NAFTA and other federal measures that helped send those jobs away. Thing is, Ryan's STILL in favor of free trade agreements. And there's absolutely no reason to believe he has had a genuine change of heart on oil company subsidies. Rather, it's more likely he's just reading the polls and taking the heated temperature at his town hall meetings. Fending off, in other words.
#444444; padding: 0px;">Wise voters will borrow a line from former Nixon attorney general John Mitchell: Don't watch what Ryan and Boehner say; instead, watch what they do.
#444444; padding: 0px;">Only when directly asked by a constituent did Ryan appear to reverse course on the oil company subsidies, giving an "aw, shucks, sure" answer and eliciting applause for his abrupt turnabout -- which many in the audience may not even have known WAS a turnabout.
#444444; padding: 0px;">Worse yet, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's news story failed whatsoever to mention Ryan's long record of supporting such subsidies. Which is tantamount to letting Ryan conveniently redefine himself for political gain. Politifact, are you listening?
#444444; padding: 0px;">Nothing like having someone else's cake and eating it, too.