Newsweek Slams 'Scrooge' Paul Ryan as a 'Fraud' Fighting a 'War' on the Poor
The April 18 edition of Newsweek trashed Republican Paul Ryan as a "scrooge" who is declaring "war" on poor Americans. The piece by Jonathan Chait ripped the Representative's budget proposal and included this cover headline: "Why GOP Scrooge Paul Ryan Is a Fraud."
The failing publication, which was sold for $1 in 2010, featured an equally vicious headline inside the magazine: "War on the Weak: How the GOP Came to View the Poor as Parasites and the Rich as Our Rightful Rulers."
Chait, who is a senior editor at the liberal new Republic, offered the Republican Ryan's affection for author Ayn Rand as evidence of a "war" on the parasitic poor:
In 2009 Rand began popping up all over the Tea Party movement. Sales of her books skyrocketed, and signs quoting her ideas appeared constantly at rallies. Conservatives asserted that the events of the Obama administration eerily paralleled the plot of Atlas Shrugged, in which a liberal government precipitates economic collapse.
One conservative making that point was Ryan. His citation of Rand was not casual. He’s a Rand nut. In the days before his star turn as America’s Accountant, Ryan once appeared at a gathering to honor her philosophy, where he announced, "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand." He continues to view Rand as a lodestar, requiring his staffers to digest her creepy tracts.
[Emphasis added.] It's probably not an accident that Newsweek decided to stigmatize Rand on the same week the film adaption of Atlas Shrugged is released. Chait mocked the libertarian writer as "a kind of politicized L. Ron Hubbard."
After quoting Ryan as saying the safety net should not become "a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency," Chait derided, "Ryan is saying that the poor should not only be denied cash income but also food and health care."
Regardless of what one thinks of Ryan's economic plans, this hyperbolic, emotional attack might be one reason that few Americans, outside of those in the waiting room of the dentist's office, actually read Newsweek.
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Comments
First of all...Who cares...I
Submitted by gopsteve on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 4:46pm.
First of all...Who cares...I think less people read NW than watch MSNBC. If that is possible.
Second, they at least took the time to think of a new name to label the latest GOP target and call him "Scrooge", instead of just recycling "Grinch", which one of those lib mags called Gingrich in 1995.
I see that Newsweek has chosen the MSNBC path
Submitted by c5then on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 4:54pm.
Why is it that these liberal outlets seem to think that going more and more extreme left is going to save their ratings/circulation?
Don't they see that all they are doing is appealing to a smaller and smaller portion of the general public? How much cheaper can Newsweek get?
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Hammock
Submitted by miss911ninja on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 4:59pm.
So now it's abundantly clear: The lefties think the safety net SHOULD become a "hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives into lives of complacency and dependency." Why else would they fault Ryan for believing it shouldn't?
It'll decrease the surplus circulation
Submitted by lsudolemite on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 5:10pm.
Bad pun, I know.
Hey
Submitted by DemsRFascists on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 5:29pm.
Hey, that's just good old-fashioned unbiased Journalism...
Ask anyone at ABCNNBCBS or PBS News...
WHY do we care what Newsweek
Submitted by buddyc on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 5:59pm.
WHY do we care what Newsweek has to say about anything. No one reads it, not even democrats. It is nothing more than an inhouse newsletter for the DNC. It has been kept alive solely for the purpose of using its once good name to use to sell a democrat agenda.
I say ignore Newsweek and all who work for it. It is a NOTHING. It is not serious journalism.
Good points made by all.
Submitted by Texndoc on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 6:18pm.
How funny is it:
Jonathan Alter
John Mecham
Howard Fineman
The Newsweek trio who drove it into the mud, when introduced on panels, now have no mention of this rag. They're now known as "from" or "of" anything else. But, please, do not mention Newsweek!
At least as good as "World News Weekly".
Submitted by drsamherman on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 6:18pm.
Only thing missing is the rat-boy and pictures of the latest aliens landing at Area 51.
$1.00
Submitted by lockestep on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 6:47pm.
Is it any wonder the magazine is only worth one buck? I would not pay 50 cents for it.
When the gov't taxes the
Submitted by rbosque on Sat, 04/16/2011 - 1:53am.
When the gov't taxes the "rich", they pass those taxes to the poor (if they have a business). They also employ less poor since that money is going to Uncle Sam.
When gas prices increase (Obama's plan), then the poor get hit the hardest because it also raises food prices.
When the gov't commits to "quantitative easing", it's a defacto tax on everyone but it hits the poor the hardest.
If the gov't raises corporate taxes, they'll flee the country which means they take jobs overseas. Again, the poor are hit the hardest.
If there's a "war" on the poor, it's not the Republicans that are doing it.
If Ryan is going to wage a
Submitted by TerryWest on Sat, 04/16/2011 - 2:23am.
If Ryan is going to wage a war upon the poor it couldn't have come at better time as the Democrats have increased the poor's ranks substantially and it's still growing, However I'm not feeling the poor are going to buy into this despicable desperate class warfare baiting as they have seen nothing but cuts due to the MS media troop leaders policy's.
Obama is the fraud....
Submitted by peteto1 on Sat, 04/16/2011 - 2:46am.
Actually, in modern civilization, there is hardly anything MORE EVIL than Communism. Since Obama is hell-bent (no pun intended) on converting the U.S. to Socialism (Communism-lite; “the GOAL of Socialism is Communism” -V. Lenin), one would have to say that Obama is, indeed, evil. His grandfather, mother, and father ALL espoused/admired Socialism. He was fascinated by/studied/admired Socialists in Hawaii (Frank Marshall Davis), Occidental College, Columbia, and Harvard (self-admittedly admired his Socialist professors), and Chicago (disciple of Saul Alinsky, Bill Ayers, et al). Obama IS (follow his actions, not his words) a commited Socialist/Marxist!!……….