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GOP VP Pick Paul Ryan Coming to Arlington

by ARLnow.com | August 15, 2012 at 3:10 pm | 3,410 views | 102 Comments

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the vice presidential pick of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, will be coming to Arlington this week for a private fundraiser.

Ryan will headline a private fundraiser at the Westin hotel in Ballston at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The fundraiser will benefit the Romney presidential campaign.

The stop is one of three planned Virginia events for Ryan this week. He will also be attending a fundraiser in Richmond on Thursday with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and will be attending a rally at Deep Run High School in Glen Allen, Va. at 11:00 a.m. on Friday.

Ryan’s wife, Janna, was living in Arlington and working as a tax attorney for PricewaterhouseCoopers when she first met Ryan in 1999.

http://www.michaels.com Mitch Michaelson

Release the Trolls!
Ashton Heights

You know, I wouldn’t want him as VP. But he’d be a healthy counterweight on the County Board. Can someone ask him if he wants to run?
- Not Me
  
  That would sure spice Arlington politics right up! I do believe that would be…. awesome!
  
  I’d make popcorn right away.
- Josh S
  
  But here’s the deal – his views represent only a small percentage of the people in Arlington. Therefore, it wouldn’t really be democratic to have him, now would it?
- Mimi Stratton
  
  hahahaa! He’d never be elected.
- Buddy
  
  Voted: Best idea of the week.
  Confession: Democrate here, but county board does need
  counterweight !
Fernando

they met at Whitlowes, banged 4 days later. fact.
- Tom
  
  Ha! Cool. USA!
  - Sheriff Gonna Getcha
    
    I DONT BELIEVE IT. WHAT ABOUT AMERICAN VALUES!!!
- JamesE
  
  Ryan and Jindal
  - prurient homme
    
    Syan and Jindal banged 4 days later? That’s an image . . .
    
    I think Paul is a cutie, but Bobby just don’t do it for me. And I do like brown . . .
    - Tabby_TwoTone
      
      It’s not a good image, is it?
- Jeremy
  
  Pics or it didn’t happen!
  - Not Me
    
    And a banana for scale!
- Mimi Stratton
  
  ewwwww. tmi
Jeremy

Awesome. Looking forward to hearing him explain how Romney’s budget plan will cause all non-Medicare, non-Social Security, and non-defense spending to be cut by 40 percent in 2016 and 57 percent in 2022. That outta be GREAT for our the D.C. area!
- Jeremy
  
  Sorry for the extra “the.”
  - WaPo
    
    HAHAH, do you believe everything you read in the washington post opinion section? Move to Cali you hippie
    - Arlington Cat
      
      Fox News watcher, are we?
      - Stitch_Jones
        
        Whatever we do, let’s not actually read the budget proposal. Too easy to guess which networks we watch and cast judgements based on that single presumed fact.
        
        Arlington. So educated, and that’s the problem.
      - Mimi Stratton
        
        Seeing as how it was a four-page Powerpoint, I did read it, actually.
      - GC2
        
        FYI to those who watch FOX. I’m a conservative, and even I got a bit tired of watching Fox news – too much group think. Seriously, you should try watching MSNBC’s Morning Joe for entertainment. Joe is surrounded by idiot liberals (although Mikka is kind of hot). Now that he supports Paul Ryan as a VP he has really been nailing the libs on their opinions and calling them out on their idiocy. If for nothing else, it does give you a well rounded view of the opinions out there, and you get the feeling of annoyance when you know they are misstating facts, and get that “rush” when you hear Joe call them out on it. Yes, he’s a moderate Republican when it comes to the social issues, but he is a small government fiscal conservative. I wouldn’t watch MSNBC for any other programming.
      - Westover
        
        Joe helped Paul Ryan’s first campaign a lot.
      - Vision Quest
        
        You shouldn’t watch any of that garbage, but FoxNews is particularly absurd. Blatant lies.
      - Mimi Stratton
        
        You can watch MoJo for about six months, then it gets very, very old.
    - drax
      
      Not opinion.
    - Jeremy
      
      The Washington Post is infinitely more respectable and accurate than 99% of the mainstream media. I know it’s inconvenient for you, but I would rather get my info from the Post than one of those scrumptious yet vapid news readers at Fox News. And have you read the Washington Times lately? I know their subscriber base is only about 50,000 so it’s not likely you have, but sheesh, that paper stinks.
      - Patrick
        
        WSJ >> WP
      - Suburban Not Urban
        
        +1
      - Joe
        
        hahaha
    - Josh S
      
      Why would you need to read about Ryan’s budget in the opinion section of any newspaper? It’s factual in nature – just read the proposed budget. I don’t know for sure if the numbers above are real, but I have no reason to believe they aren’t. In any case, I do know that his budget proposes significant, even dramatic cuts in a lot of federal government programs that are otherwise quite popular among the people and do a lot of good for a lot of people.
      
      By the way, calling anyone a hippie is fairly anachronistic at this point.
- Stitch_Jones
  
  I am sure that the rest of the country which has been suffering high unemployment while subsidizing our area’s economy with their tax dollars will not mind seeing some jobs disappear here. May even make the tasks at hand more efficient. I am guessing that everyone here can think of a few government workers/contractors that are redundant or provide little to no value where they work every day.
  - DCBuff
    
    Yes, there’s the pleasant tea partier attitude again–spread the misery! Instead of finding ways to improve the lot of those in need, screw somebody else! Assume they aren’t working hard or of value because ignorance is best!
    - Patrick
      
      What you describes sounds alot more like the Occupy crowd then Tea Party. Tax the rich, pay their fair share, etc..
      - Josh S
        
        In what way would having Romney, for example, pay another $1 million (or whatever) in taxes “spread misery?”
        
        Equating the “misery” experienced by the 1% by paying more taxes with the “misery” experienced by those out of work, homeless, unable to pay for health care, etc, etc, etc is simply absurd and borders on inhumane.
  - Ivy
    
    It’s better than the entire country subsidizing the top 1% wealthiest and a war we never should have started.
    - Patrick
      
      Those damn 1 percenters paying the majority of income taxes in this country. Who do they think they are?
      - CitizensUnitedAgainstCitizensUnited
        
        The top 1% is paying a smaller *share* of taxes than they ever have. Even while they’re taking a larger share of total income than they ever have.
        
        There’s no other First World country with the level of inequality that the USA has. Which makes the USA a dandy place to live if you’re in the top 1%, but a terrible place — compared to every other rich industrialized democracy — if you’re in the bottom 50%.
        
        It is now more difficult to lift yourself out of poverty in America than it is in Western Europe. This wasn’t true a generation ago, but it’s true today. The “American Dream” is now more likely to happen if you’re living in Denmark or Germany.
      - Sheriff Gonna Getcha
        
        plus- those on the right would rather prevent immigrants from coming to america and starting businesses. so many young kids come to american univerities and study math and science and must leave after graduation bc we will not allow them to stay.
        
        These are the people we need coming to america. Unless we want to keep graduating art history and american literature majors and wonder why our country is not productive.
        
        we need an immigrant wave to increase the tax base and start contributing to our country rather than having these talented students leave and start businesses elsewhere.
      - No Argument
        
        I don’t think anyone is arguing that well educated immigrants should not be able to stay – I say open the flood gates, otherwise we become like Russia, Japan, Europe with declining and aging populations. Where people have the issue is all the illegal immigrants flooding in from primarily one country with immediate benefits once they have a child on our soil. Open immigration sounds nice, but remember we have 1/2 the US population not paying income taxes so the burden falls on the producers to keep supporting more and more people with public benefits.
      - Not Me
        
        Why they’re our beloved ‘job creators’. Because we all know that they create jobs for the good of the american people. All this keynesian nonesense about Demand creating the need for employment detracts from the real message. Our benevolent overlords bestow employment upon us if only we’d learn to treat them right… duuuurrrrrrrr.
      - Josh S
        
        Half of the picture, and you know it. It’s not even the most important half. No one but the 1% think that this is a golden age. Most people point to the post-war years as being the best years experienced by the most people in this country. Tax rates were as high as 70% for the highest bracket.
        
        Taxing the rich is not a problem that the vast majority of the country should be worried about. It will not cause any harm to the average American and would likely benefit them instead.
        
        We are NOT rugged individuals, we are all in this together. We cannot succeed as a nation unless we work together. Right now, the 1% are more than happy to hoard wealth, and get richer every day while the 99% stagnate or get poorer. And they do it not by being rugged individuals, they do it by taking advantage of the system and rigging it in their favor, including by approving of government regulation and spending when it favors them and disapproving when it doesn’t.
      - Mimi Stratton
        
        That the 1% pays the majority of income tax in this country is widely believed, but it’s wrong. Because none of the one percenters pay the official tax, they pay effective tax rates much lower, as we’ve seen in Romney’s case who pays a mere 13%, well, at least, we think he’s paid 13% for the one year in which he’s released his tax return, a partial one at that. FAR and away more tax revenue is paid by the bottom 99%, including payroll taxes, which are mostly paid by those with incomes below $100,000 per year. I recommend reading David Kay Johnston on this. He is the expert.
  - drax
    
    Lower income taxes aren’t much use to those with no income.
  - Josh S
    
    How would having some jobs disappear from the DC metro area help people out of work in Michigan?
    
    Do you think it is a zero sum game?
- bman
  
  Won’t that match Obama’s DoD sequestration?
GreaterClarendon

Just hope his pick as VP candidate can elevate the discussion beyond each parties scare tactics and avoidance to have a serious debate on how to save / reform these programs. I am excited about Ryan. I’m mid-40s, a few million through hard work and good investments, and would be willing to pay a bit more in taxes IF spending is under control and IF new taxes do not simply mean new programs. Despite all the rhetoric, these programs are going to fail without reforms, and we should not be borrowing money to pay out these programs since we are simply stealing from our kids future prosperity. Denying that these programs are headed towards bankruptcy is the same as denying global warming is occurring (although logical persons can disagree on why the environment is warming).
- Stitch_Jones
  
  +1 An adult debate is welcome and overdue. We shall see what we get…
  - Newtdog73
    
    Don’t hold your breath. ARL is the new craigslist.
- Greg
  
  I feel like there is an intelligent thought in your post but the writing is so cryptic I can’t figure out what the hell you are trying to say.
- Young Condo Owner
  
  Dude, +1,000,000 — or more (I’m striving to get where you are – I live in Clarendon … “livin the dream!” … but not to your level yet, but give me time!)
  
  I’m late 20′s, on my way to my first MIL!!!!! I also had incredibly good fortune through investments, which at some point I will be able to control outright, once my parents sign off on it.
  
  THANK YOU for not stealing from my future prosperity, I am working my ass off to get to my first million, thanks to some tight downtown connections I was lucky enough to get, and maybe when I’m in my 40s I’ll be into more taxes, although I kind of doubt it. I want to secure my own future generation’s prosperity first, and then I will consider it, I think.
  
  These programs are totally headed to bankruptcy, and I for one do not want one more dollar going to this failed experiment. Who can ask a dollar to be the last dollar to be spent for a mistake?
  
  And also thank you for the “global warming” analogy, I’m a logical guy, and I don’t see it happening because of people at all. I mean, Snowmaggeddon and all that kind of put the nail in climate change’s coffin, at least for a decade, for the serious, Rand-type philosophical-types like me.
  - internet tourettes
    
    “I am working my ass off to get to my first million, thanks to some tight downtown connections”
    
    This is Washington at its finest, even if you work your all off you’ll never make a million unless you have the connections. I don’t mean this response to be an insult or to diminish you success but with out “connections” there is no success in this town.
    - JamesE
      
      His post is pure sarcasm, and it is glorious.
      - 22201
        
        I was going to suggest the two of them get a room, but then caught that the praise was a little too glorious to be real. That said, I mostly agree with Greater Clarendon.
  - CW
    
    Oh YCO, it is so good to have you back, your posts are awesome and sorely needed.
  - Josh S
    
    This has got to be a joke.
MC 703

Romney’s cred as a semi-moderate had me on the fence. Picking a Tea Partier shoved me off of the fence.
- Westover
  
  Paul Ryan might have the support of Tea Party folks, but he is not a Tea Partier. He is not a populist, he has a philosophy and he tries to stick to it. It is not as simple as just being a conservative as he tries to be guided by the Christian principles of the Catholic Church as much as the Libertarian Beliefs of Ayn Rand. As a person he is a great guy, has been since he was just a staffer on the Hill. As a politician, he has his stance and it is pretty stable.
  - Greg
    
    Fact – Ryan used the Social Security survivors benefits he received when his father died to pay for his education at Miami University.
  - Hector
    
    His philosophy just a few years ago was rubber-stamping almost all of George W. Bush’s efforts that destroyed the budget surplus left by Bill Clinton. Two wars off the books? Sure. Big drug benefit for Medicare? Of course. Huge tax cuts for the richest folks around? Sure thing.
    
    So NOW he’s a fiscal conservative? Baloney. He’s a career politician and an intellectual dilettante. Newt Gingrich without those years teaching college.
  - Vision Quest
    
    An Ayn Rand fanatic who has never worked in the private sector in his entire adult life.
    - jackson
      
      Ayn Rand and her “virtue of selfishness” has done more damage to young minds than weed ever did.
      
      And of course she couldn’t even follow her own philosophy and spent her later years receiving checks from the government.
Clay

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.” John Rogers
- DCBuff
  
  Now THAT is funny.
  - ArmchairPsych
    
    So true, though. Plus have you seen that Black&White interview with Ayn Rand ? Forget what she’s saying, her mannerisms are very telling.
    - Ayn Randy
      
      Have you read my book “Fat Lass Shagged”?
  - not your bro
    
    Awesome. Brilliant.
    
    + 2 mill, more than YCO
Andy

He’s just taking advantage of restaurant week.
- DCBuff
  
  You mean Ryan landing his now wife?
Vision Quest

“Romney, in a rare press conference on Monday night in Florida, repeatedly refused to say whether he backed Ryan’s Medicare reform plan. Some of advisers have gone on television to say publicly that he wholly and enthusiastically endorsed Ryan’s budget proposals and would, if president, have signed it. Others have sought to distance him from it, saying Romney was running on his own plan.”-The Guardian

Seriously? Romney picked Paul Ryan as his VP on August 1st, and two weeks later his team still wasn’t prepared for a barrage of questions about whether their guy supports Ryan’s budget roadmap and his Medicare plan? Even though that’s the single most important policy initiative he’s associated with?

Who the hell is running this operation? This is a clown show of epic proportions.
- SomeGuy
  
  Politics in general is often a clown show. Have you seen the antics of the opposing party’s presumptive VP candidate lately? And he’s been along for the ride for 4 years. There’s plenty of “who’s steering that ship?” to go around.
  - drax
    
    Biden’s not dodging questions about Obama’s basic policy goals though.
    - SomeGuy
      
      Vision Quest’s comment seemed focused on the lack of organization and discipline in the campaign. That’s what I responded to.
      
      And I’d add that there’s rarely a politician who “wholly and enthusiastically” endorses every component of legislation, so it’s not a simple yes/no question. Does Obama “wholly and enthusiastically” endorse every single line of ACA? Probably not, or he wouldn’t be granting waivers to some businesses on parts of it and want to amend other parts of it.
      
      Bills require compromise, so there’s a little something disagreeable in them for everyone.
LVGuy

Man, people weren’t kidding about the trash coming over the bridge from DC.
- DCBuff
  
  Bet he’s not taking Metro.
Your Mom

Nice. Glad to see someone other than Kumar hosting political events in Arlington. Finally someone who non communists living in Arlington can relate to.
- Patrick
  
  + 1,000
  - DCBuff
    
    I’m all for someone other than the ArlCo pinkos having political events here–after all, it benefits our local economy–but I’m not sure that means that those of us that don’t follow the red banner can relate to a tea bagger either.
    - Jack D. Ripper
      
      The commie pinkos are why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol.
- Joe
  
  Good argument.
- Josh S
  
  It’s a shame, but not a surprise, that you stopped thinking once you got into college. And nothing you “learned” from your frat buddies counts.
George

I and my life partner would only consider voting for Romney/Ryan if they would adopt a more progressive stance in their policies. I do not think that wll ever happen. Obama is by far the smartest President of the United States we have ever had the pleasure of serving. I doubt that Ryan or Romney could come close to matching the intellect of President Obama, nor could they eclipse the vision of how the United States must evolve to a more exocentric society with all having the same opportunity no matter the nationality.
- Dave in SA
  
  “smartest President” ? You are in fantasy land! Have another joint or more!
  - Joe
    
    Ah we’re stereotyping now are we?
    
    Go eat another squirrel!
  - drax
    
    One thing’s for sure – he’s smarter than your comment, Dave.
- bman
  
  huh?
- CW
  
  This is one of those ones where it’s really hard to tell if it’s sarcasm or not.
CitizensUnitedAgainstCitizensUnited

Gotta love how we’ve normalized and legalized bribery in our political system: “private fundraiser” is such a wonderful euphemism.

In America, we have the best politicians money can buy.
- drax
  
  Give it a rest. Voters have complete control over who is elected.
  - Josh S
    
    ?!?!?!?!?
    
    Are you nuts?
    - drax
      
      No.
      
      Have you ever seen someone elected who doesn’t get the most votes?
      
      Other than Al Gore, of course.
  - http://purple.com/purple.html Captain Pup McPuppo
    
    LOL OK
Sheriff Gonna Getcha

I wonder what Ryans views are on gay marriage. If he is against it- would he still accept donations to this event for his campaign? or would it make it gay and ruin the meaning of it?
- Sheriff Gonna Getcha
  
  accept donations to this event for his campaign from the gay community***
  - not your bro
    
    My guess: he would have taken them a year ago, but now is under too much scrutiny to be able to take money from uncloseted gays. I don’t know his views on gay marriage either, but I think he votes party line on that stuff.
- drax
  
  It’s not like it’s easy to find on Google or anything.
  
  http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2012/08/11/here-lgbt-rights-record-paul-ryan-who-reports-say-romney-pick-veep
True Arlingtonian

Looking forward to a Romney/Ryan presidency.
- jackson
  
  And you’ll get it… when you can take the trolley to the voting center.
  - Not Me
    
    So… maybe in 4 to 8 years.
    - jackson
      
      I’m guessing his polling place isn’t on Columbia Pike, so I meant probably never.
TJLinBallston

There’s a nervous undertone to the anti-Ryan comments here. He’s the real thing and that must scare Mr. Obama supporters who have grown accustomed to the Big O’s fluff and preening. Mr. Ryan has substance and an optimistic style while the current President is all scowls and scorn. Obama has always been an empty suit — get the hook!
- jackson
  
  We’ll see in November. In the meantime it’s a few more months of millions of dollars spent by random groups on both sides for attack ads, and a zillion random internet comments by ordinary joes and janes like us.
  
  (Meanwhile, under all the bluster, big companies are still spending obscene amounts of money lobbying congress members, effectively buying votes without stepping into a voting booth at all.)

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