Sunday, September 16, 2012
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On Who He Would Like To Have Dinner With:
David Brody: Have you ever thought about who you would love to have dinner with exactly?
Paul Ryan: Well, I had dinner with my mom last night and I enjoyed that. She’s really kind of my hero. Thomas Aquinas, I’m a huge fan of Thomas Aquinas, Abraham Lincoln. But I was a huge fan of Thomas Aquinas as a young man and I’d probably say that and Abraham Lincoln.”
More on Thomas Aquinas here.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On Why Romney/Ryan Team Won’t Detail Tax Loopholes:
David Brody: There are some conservatives that have spoken out saying they want to see some more specifics from the Romney/Ryan team and one thing that comes up, at least from the liberals is tax loopholes. Is there a reason you guys aren’t naming specific tax loopholes?
Paul Ryan: Yes because we want to get it done. Look, I’ve been on the Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. I’m very familiar with how to make successful tax reforms take place. Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil did it in 1986 but we haven’t done it since 1986 for lots of reasons, which is we don’t want to presume to say, ‘Here’s exactly our way or the highway take it or leave it Congress.’ We want to say this is our vision, lower tax rates across the board for families and small businesses and work on the loopholes that are enjoyed by the higher income earners, take away their tax shelters so more of their income is subject to taxation.
That lowers everybody’s tax rates. And we have to be able to work with Congress on those details, on how to fill it in and, more to the point, we don’t want to cut some backroom deal that they did with Obamacare where we hatched some plan behind the scenes and they spring it on the country.
We want to do this in front, in the public, through congressional hearings with Congress so that we can get to the best conclusion with a public participation. That’s the process that works the best to ultimate success gets this done. That’s why we’re doing it this way.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On Why President Obama Has The Lead in Polls:
David Brody: Why do you think Obama is polling, at least at this point among registered voters and likely voters a little bit ahead of you guys? Why do you think with everything that has gone on in this administration, things that you’ve pointed out and quite frankly Independents and Democrats are frustrated, too. Why do you think he’s still leading at the polls at this point?
Paul Ryan: Well, two things. We’re taking on an incumbent president. We’re the challengers. He’s the incumbent. He has all the benefits of incumbency, of the bully pulpit. Number two: He just spent the last three or four months trashing Mitt Romney. What he’s trying to do is make Mitt Romney an unacceptable alternative because he has no record to run on. That can work for a while.
Because President Obama has no record to run on, because ‘Hope and Change’ is now basically “Attack and Blame’, he’s running a campaign based on envy, anxiety, fear and frustration and that works to a degree, especially when he’s pumping hundreds of millions of dollars through that kind of a campaign and we’re still effectively tied.
So I actually like where we are right now because, in the final analysis, when people see the big solutions, the big ideas that we’re offering the country, a very clear choice of two futures: Do you want the opportunity society with the safety net, the prosperity society that reclaims our founding principles, or do you want Barack Obama’s welfare state with a debt crisis? More of the same. I don’t think people are going to vote for that.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve and Quantitative Easing:
David Brody: Look, Bernanke and this $40 billion and this QE3 that’s going on. Give me your 30-second version if you can.
Paul Ryan: I’m not a fan of QE3. I wasn’t a fan of QE2 either. I think in the long run it will do more harm than good. But what this is is it’s the Federal Reserve and the monetary policy trying to bail out the fact that we have terrible leadership on fiscal policy from President Obama.
So you have the Federal Reserve bailing out the Obama administration at the expense of monetary policy and you know who gets hurt the most right now? It’s savers, it’s senior citizens living on CDs and fixed incomes, people living on insurance annuities. There are losers right now with this kind of movement.
But more to the point I fear that it undermines the ultimate credibility of our currency, of our money and you need to have sound money. It’s a necessary pre-condition for economic growth. We have loose money already so it’s not a question of having too tight of a monetary policy. We have exceptionally loose monetary policy.
What we don’t have is White House leadership, Senate leadership on getting this debt under control, on getting tax reform, on cleaning up the regulatory system. We have really bad fiscal policy, it’s crippling growth, it’s why we have the highest poverty rates in a generation, it’s why we have 23 million people out of work and irrespective of what Ben Bernanke does, it’s not going to be a (??) fiscal policy.
Brody: But I am curious there are some people that think there is some political motivation here. Do you think there is any sort of political component here at all? That Bernanke might want to spurn the economy a little bit right before in September?
Ryan: I’ve known Ben a long time and he understands my feelings about this. He and I have had very candid conversations about monetary policy. I’m not going to go into reading his political motives. I don’t think that’s something that’s appropriate to do from a perspective of a person in my position.
But I don’t think it’s a good idea to do this easing. The Fed balance sheet is approaching around $3 trillion. This kind of easing hurts savers, questions the credibility of our currency, and I think ultimately the costs outweigh the benefits.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On Whether America Should Cut Off Foreign Aid to Egypt and Libya:
David Brody: What about aid to foreign countries like Libya and Egypt? Would a Romney/Ryan administration take a serious look at cutting off all aid to these type of countries?
Paul Ryan: Yeah, you have to reassess all of these things. It’s too early. First of all, what you don’t do is you don’t knee jerk. You don’t have knee jerk reactions but you clearly assess these things. We give about $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt. They're one of our biggest beneficiaries of our foreign aid and that’s always been a military to military. I’ve very familiar with it.
As head of the budget committee I’ve scrubbed these numbers and I’ve looked through these books. You can’t just take these things for granted. You can’t just rubber stamp spending from one year to the next. And so we need to reassess these things and our strategic interests. But in the heat of passion, you don’t just have knee-jerk reactions like that. I think you have to reassess it.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On President Obama’s Snub of Benjamin Netanyahu:
David Brody: Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to meet with the president. The president says it’s not going to happen yet, oh by the way; he’s going to meet with President Mohammad Morsi next week at the UN. What does that tell you exactly about this administration?
Paul Ryan: I’m really troubled by this. Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East. Of all times, when we need to show very little daylight if any between our relationship with Israel is now. And so I think this fraying relationship with Israel bordering on contempt is the worst possible thing we should be doing at this time.
Iran is four years closer to a nuclear weapon. Over the last four years they have gone to about 90 percent of the way there towards getting a nuclear weapon. This is not only an existential threat to Israel but this is a serious threat to the world order, to peace, to our national security. And to treat our allies this way I’m perplexed by it to be candid with you.
Now, I’ve been fighting in Congress for stronger sanctions, better policies, to do a better job of having crippling sanctions on Iran to make them re-think this. That hasn’t happened. It wasn’t fast enough. The administration dragged their feet, fought us on a lot of this. That’s one thing but to openly treat our allies, Bibi Netenyahu this way is just truly perplexing to me.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On Finding His Father’s Dead at Home at the Age of 16:
David Brody: This is kind of my Oprah moment, if you will, or your Oprah moment. You’re 16 years old. You talked a little bit about this before about your father. Take me back to the specifics of that day when you found him in bed and what happened after that as it relates to you and your journey.
Paul Ryan: It’s not something I talk about very often. I’m the youngest of four kids, my sister and older brother were already out of college on with their lives, my mom and my aunt were visiting my sister who had a job in Denver at the time. Tobin, my other brother who’s closer to me in age was already at his job in the park system and I worked the late shift at McDonalds the night before and my dad’s secretary called to say where is he? He’s got clients in his office. He was a small town lawyer and I went to wake him up and he was dead.
He had been dead for some time. He had died of a heart attack in the middle of the night. That’s something that no person should ever have to go through. It’s basically something that made me realize I had to either sink or swim. When you get a punch in the gut like that you do a lot of soul searching.
I basically learned through that experience that it made me inquire a lot. It really is the moment that triggered a rediscovery of my faith and it made me think about the meaning of things, the meaning of life. And that’s why I became such a prolific reader, that’s why I was searching for answers.
And what happened through that journey in my life is that I became that much more stronger in my convictions, in my faith and it was one of those sort of moment’s in a person’s life that just was a pivotal moment, a trajectory making moment. And I just decided I’m going to take life on and make it count because it is precious and short. We’re here for a reason, for a short season, and that is what has been a motivating factor for me which is make it count. Make every day matter.
Brody: How do you see Jesus in your life right now?
Ryan: Well, he’s central to my life. He’s central to my faith. He’s my savior.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On How His Catholic Views Shape His Public Policy Decisions:
David Brody: What about the Catholic vote? I’m curious about that. One in four voters identify themselves as Catholic. There’s this big schism between the social justice Catholics and the pro-life Catholics. You’re in that world. What’s your take on all that?
Paul Ryan: There is some political philosophy that enters into it. I, as a conservative Catholic, can no more claim sole justification for my political views than a liberal can for theirs. The social magisterium is very broad in allowing the lay to exercise what we call prudential judgment to apply their principles to the problems of the day.
Now, there are key issues, intrinsic issues, life and marriage and things like this that are really non-negotiable and the Church is very clear on that. But on other issues, of economics and such like that, that’s a matter of prudential judgment.
Now what we believe as practicing Catholics, as conservative Catholics is that our job is to go after the root cause of poverty, to try and eradicate poverty. When we talk about ideas, principles like subsidiarity in conjunction with solidarity and preferential option for the poor, what that means is we believe in civil society. We believe in individuals in their community and solidarity with one another working to create a better common good for everybody; helping people in need, protecting the voiceless like the unborn.
These things are central to who we are and the notion that you can divorce these principles, these matters of faith between private life and public life, that doesn’t jive with the thinking of a Catholic. And so sure there are differences of opinion on how to achieve an end. We believe in attacking the root cause of poverty not simply treating the symptoms so it’s more tolerable and that means having a vibrant civil society.
And when government gets too big and too intrusive and too dictatorial, then it crowds out civil society. It makes it harder for those institutions that are the mediating institutions between the person and their government to flourish; churches, charities, civic organizations. When my boys go to Cub Scouts they learn values at Cub Scouts. When we put the Pinewood Derby together or the Raingutter Regatta, when my daughter gets involved in her local charities or things like this, this is what ties people together.
And the notion that the government is the center of our society, of our economy, in our life is just a notion that is foreign to us who are people of faith who believe in these principles.
Below is part of The Brody File exclusive interview with vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The interview was done Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
The Brody File’s national piece on Paul Ryan airs on "The 700 Club" Monday morning. In addition, a fuller version of the interview can be seen on The Brody File TV Show this coming Friday at 9:30 a.m. on the ABC Family Channel.
Stay in the know. Get The Brody File Weekly
On the Obama Administration’s Conscience Clause Mandate:
David Brody: How much of a full-frontal assault by the Obama administration is this as it relates to Catholic charities and churches?
Paul Ryan: It’s a full-frontal assault on our First Amendment to the Constitution; freedom of religion, freedom of conscience. This is the federal government telling people of conscience that they have to violate their conscience. This is not just an assault on just one religious institution. It’s really an assault on all religious institutions.
Look, I’m a practicing Catholic, my kids go to a Catholic school, I’ve been involved in Catholic charities. Around the country we have Catholic hospitals. These institutions, their first amendment rights to religious liberty, are being violated clear and simple by the Obama administration with this HHS mandate.
But it’s not just Catholics. It’s all people of conviction and faith and that’s why it’s so encouraging to see people of all walks of faith from the private sector, people from different charities and churches, getting involved in fighting this mandate. The problem is we shouldn’t have to go to court to sue our federal government to protect our civil liberties.
So, look under a Romney administration, this is gone. We will not do this. This along with the rest of Obamacare is something we are seriously committed to repealing.