Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan Takes On Elizabeth Warren And The 99 Percent

Brian Beutler | October 26, 2011, 1:12PM

Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Democrats want the 2012 elections to turn on the question of which party has a better vision for the country, and to win the ensuing battle of public perception, both parties are putting the brightest shine they can on their particular designs.

On Wednesday, the GOP pitted conservative darling Paul Ryan against liberal hero Elizabeth Warren, with Ryan serving as a tribune to wealthy Americans and Warren as a populist fighter for working people.

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Debt ceiling

NOT GOOD ENOUGH: Conservatives Still Want More In Debt Ceiling Deal

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 31, 2011, 4:38PM

RedState's Erick Erickson

Over on the progressive side of politics, they're nursing their wounds and drowning their sorrows as details of the deal to increase the debt ceiling emerge. They feel like they lost to a Republican party that dug in and used the debt ceiling to achieve their goal of dramatically shrinking government spending and solving the deficit problem without raising a single penny in new revenue.

So they might be surprised to know that conservatives don't think they won, either. The right, despite apparently negotiating Obama into a corner that pits him against large parts of his base, still isn't satisfied.

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Heritage Foundation

Heritage Foundation Removes Unemployment Data From Budget Study

Benjy Sarlin | April 6, 2011, 3:45PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Apparently, the Heritage Foundation isn't comfortable being the butt of economists' jokes after boldly predicting a 2.8% unemployment rate in 2021 if the House GOP Budget is enacted. The think tank has removed the number from its study posted online.

As Paul Krugman pointed out in his blog, web users who downloaded a copy of the Heritage Foundation's analysis yesterday were treated to a table in the appendix detailing the unemployment rate under Paul Ryan's plan versus the CBO's projections for the President's budget. The same file downloaded today, however, omits the table entirely. TPM reached out to Heritage for an explanation and will post an update if they have further information.

Earlier today, the analyst responsible for the Heritage study conceded the numbers appeared a little low. But don't take the change in their report as a sign that Heritage has changed its rosy outlook on Ryan's plan -- the switch is only cosmetic. The overall job numbers remain the same in both versions, it's just the unemployment rate that's gone missing.

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Budget

Heritage: Our Wildly Optimistic Budget Analysis May Be a Tad Off

Benjy Sarlin | April 6, 2011, 1:26PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

After widespread criticism that its analysis of Paul Ryan's budget was optimistic to the point of absurdity, an author of the Heritage Foundation is admitting to reporters that his numbers may have been a tad off. But he firmly lays the blame at the feet of the CBO, the independent analyst tasked with evaluating the impact of congressional legislation on the budget, for any of his errors.

The most glaring number was Heritage's unemployment projection, which they saw dropping to 6.4% in 2012 and an unprecedented 2.8% in 2021. In an interview with Slate's Dave Weigel, the director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, William Beach, admitted his study's figures might strain belief.

"Am I comfortable with a 2.8 unemployment rate?" asked Beach. "It's pretty low. The model's predicting a low unemployment rate -- that's how to take it. The thing is that the model stops in 2022. If it had continued into 2022-2031, then the unemployment rate would start to rise again."

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Herman Cain

Herman Cain: Planned Parenthood Should Be Called 'Planned Genocide'

Jon Terbush | March 16, 2011, 10:19AM

Herman Cain

Presidential aspirant and former pizza tycoon Herman Cain did not mince words when criticizing Planned Parenthood on Tuesday, saying the organization would be more aptly described as 'planned genocide.'

Speaking to a group of reporters at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Cain said he supported fully defunding Planned Parenthood -- as House Republicans have sought to do with their budget bill -- because, he claimed, the organization was founded with the goal of killing black babies before they were born.

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Oversight Committee

Heritage Asks Issa To Reverse Decades Of Worker, Consumer, Environmental Laws

Brian Beutler | January 31, 2011, 2:30PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

CREW got a hold of a bunch of letters to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa from trade association, industry, and think tank leaders, which identify aspects of the federal regulatory regime that they believe Issa should investigate to make life and profits easier for businesses.

The one that most neatly reflects the priorities of the conservative movement comes from the Heritage Foundation, which is asking Issa to attack decades worth of regulatory and statutory worker and consumer protections.

Here's the laundry list:

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CPAC

Heritage Changes Reason For CPAC Dropout: GOProud Was Part Of It

Jillian Rayfield | January 28, 2011, 11:30AM

The Heritage Foundation has shifted its explanation for backing out of this year's CPAC conference, with James Weidman, a foundation spokesman, telling the New York Times: "GOProud was one element in the decision."

A number of conservative groups and politicians aren't participating in the annual conservative conference -- some citing GOProud's involvement as the reason.

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CPAC

More Conservative Groups Pulling Out Of CPAC -- And Blasting Gay Inclusion

Eric Kleefeld | January 7, 2011, 11:07AM

The 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference

Is the annual CPAC conservative activist conference coming undone -- with the inclusion of gays being the final straw?

As we've posted before, some social conservative groups have been pulling out of the annual event, due to the inclusion of the gay conservative group GOProud. As the right-wing World Net Daily, which has been hammering away at this issue, now reports, the Heritage Foundation and the Media Research Center -- an organization that cover a variety of issues, not just social conservatism -- have also pulled out of CPAC.

Dave Weigel argues that other factors are at play here -- notably financial disputes with the leadership of CPAC's organizers, the American Conservative Union. But these groups are simultaneously blasting CPAC for including gays.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Influential Conservatives Line Up Behind Tax Cut Compromise

Brian Beutler | December 8, 2010, 11:27AM

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Here's the counterpoint to the threat Sen. Jim DeMint and the Club for Growth pose to President Obama and Mitch McConnell's tax cut compromise. A number of influential conservatives have already endorsed the plan, including Grover "Drown It In The Bathtub" Norquist.

A GOP source sent over a sampling of those endorsements.

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David Addington

Addington Takes Top Post At Conservative Heritage Foundation

Brian Beutler | August 30, 2010, 12:00PM

David Addington, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney

Former Dick Cheney aide David Addington is headed to the conservative Heritage foundation. Addington will serve, according to the Daily Caller as vice president for domestic and economic policy studies -- but he's most famous for advocating vast Presidential powers. Under Cheney, he allegedly helped to shape an infamous Justice Department memo sanctioning torture in some cases, and was a key architect of the previous administration's warrantless surveillance program

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