Aug. 13, 2012

Paul Ryan, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin, has been named the Republican candidate for vice president of the United States. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his choice of a running mate in Norfolk, Virginia, aboard the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin, on August 11. The two immediately took off on a campaign tour of Virginia and Wisconsin, both important swing states. “Hope and change has now become attack and blame,” Ryan said of Democratic President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. “President Obama is our president and he has put all his policies in place, and they’re just not working,” Ryan noted in his initial speech as the nominee.

Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, first gained national attention in 2011 for his controversial 2012 federal budget plan entitled “The Path to Prosperity.” The plan called for about $6 trillion in federal spending cuts over 10 years, reflecting the belief of many Republicans that taxes and government spending must shrink to revive the U.S. economy and avoid a national debt crisis. Ryan’s plan also included the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare,” a major health care reform bill signed into law in March 2010.

Paul Ryan (U.S. House of Representatives)

Democrats criticized Ryan’s plan, saying it favored the rich over the poor and the middle class. They argued that it would result in dismantling or drastically cutting key government programs, including Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. The Republican-controlled House passed Ryan’s plan on April 15, 2011. However, it died in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Paul Davis Ryan was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Jan. 29, 1970. He graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 1992 with a bachelors degree in economics and political science. As a young man, Ryan became an advocate of the philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand and of various conservative economists, including Milton Friedman. Ryan first won election to the House in 1998, at the age of 28. He has become a favorite of supporters of the Tea party movement.

Additional World Book articles:

• Congressional Budget Office
• Congress of the United States 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Entitlements: Benefits of Doubt (a special report)
• Health Care Reform – What’s in It for You? (a special report)
• Medicaid in Distress (a special report)
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)