Republicans’ Budget Man Draws Fire

Published: January 24, 2011 - New York Times

WASHINGTON — He is the guy with the piercing blue eyes, love for heavy metal on his iPod and a reputation among Democrats, including President Obama, as a Republican who has put forward budget ideas that are thoughtful and serious, if not in sync with their own.

But now Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican point man on spending cuts and designated responder to the State of the Union address, has emerged as the latest chew toy among Democrats. They spent Monday beginning a campaign to portray him as the architect of fiscal policies that they view as unwise and hope will prove unpopular among voters, including plans to partially privatize Social Security and Medicare.

As the House cleared a key test vote on a resolution that would direct Mr. Ryan to cut most federal spending to 2008 levels, Democrats ripped into Mr. Ryan, who is chairman of the House Budget Committee and will celebrate his 41st birthday on Saturday. And they took direct aim at a long-term proposal he produced last year for balancing the federal budget called “A Roadmap for America’s Future.”

“We will be putting a focus on the fact that on spending matters, the Republicans are making judge, jury and executioner out of someone who, according to his Roadmap, wants to privatize Social Security,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat.

A spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, went further, calling Mr. Ryan “the architect of a plan to end Social Security and Medicare” in a statement that also nodded to the House resolution, declaring, “Republicans are not only endorsing Representative Ryan’s extreme plan but giving him unprecedented power to carry it out.”

Mr. Ryan’s plan includes an option for retirees to invest some of their Social Security taxes in personal investment accounts and a new program that would give older Americans a fixed payment to buy certified private health insurance in place of traditional Medicare. It would not make any changes to Social Security and Medicare for people under 55, and Mr. Ryan has argued that the changes would preserve the programs for coming generations.

Aides said that Mr. Ryan, who was not granting interviews on Monday, was focused on preparing for his speech — by far the biggest moment of his political career — and was more interested in the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl than in the political venom being directed at him.

“It is not about him,” said Stephen Spruiell, a spokesman for the Budget Committee. “He wants this debate to stay policy and issue focused. Obviously he is also willing to take the heat on it. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have put the Roadmap forward in the first place.”

In focusing the fight on Mr. Ryan, the Democrats are partly trying to pressure House Republicans into stating publicly whether they agree with his plan. Given the popularity of those two big entitlement programs, even some of the most fiscally conservative Republican candidates resisted endorsing Mr. Ryan’s proposal in the fall elections. Aides said Mr. Ryan relished the chance to put his ideas in the spotlight and engage in a rigorous debate. They also did not shy away from hitting back at the Democrats, saying they were the ones potentially endangering Social Security and Medicare by refusing to consider politically difficult policy options.

The Democrats’ “focus on Paul Ryan” program has echoes of Mr. Obama’s strategy before the elections, when he hammered on the prospect of the House under the leadership of John A. Boehner of Ohio, who is now the speaker, in a bid to make voters think twice about backing Republicans.

Democrats said Mr. Ryan should be the focus now, even more than Mr. Boehner, who will be sitting behind Mr. Obama during Tuesday night’s speech.

“On these financial issues Paul Ryan has become the leader of the Republican Party,” Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, said Monday.

On the House floor, Democrats denounced the Republicans’ resolution.

“Under those rules, a single member of Congress, the chairman of the Budget Committee, has the authority to determine spending levels for the government for the rest of the year,” said Representative James P. McGovern of Massachusetts.

The vote in the House was 240 to 168, with eight Democrats joining all Republicans in favor.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 25, 2011, on page A15 of the New York edition.