Rep. Paul Ryan will be named Mitt Romney's running mate on Saturday,
ending weeks of speculation about the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket.
....
Ryan, 42, is best known as the chairman of the House
Budget Committee and author of a dramatic plan to overhaul Medicare, the
government-run health insurance program for senior citizens.
....
Ryan, a House member since 1999, has proposed to overhaul both
Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that have been a hallmark of the
nation's compact to provide health care to senior citizens and the poor.
Under his plan, Medicare would be run by private insurers while
Medicaid would be turned over to the states.
....
Ryan's
budget plan has been widely criticized by President Obama and his
fellow Democrats, who contend it would "end Medicare as we know it."
Obama has called Ryan's plan "thinly veiled social Darwinism."
Romney has been described as the candidate without policies. With his choice of Ryan, may we assume that Ryan's policies will be Romney's policies? Ryan's plans for the country are specific, and detailed. With prescience,
The New Yorker recently published
a lengthy profile of Ryan. What stands out in my memory from reading the profile is that Ryan wants to avoid any movement in the direction of a
European type of government.
