Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Not very hidden agenda

Paul Ryan, member of the US House of Representatives for Wisconsin, takes to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to pitch the House Republican budget, apparently oblivious to the fact that Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate, took the same budget to the electorate last year --

First, energy. America has the world's largest natural-gas, oil and coal reserves—enough natural gas to meet the country's needs for 90 years. Yet the administration is buying up land to prevent further development. Our budget opens these lands to development, so families will have affordable energy. It approves the Keystone XL pipeline, which will create 20,000 direct jobs—and 118,000 indirect jobs. Our budget puts the country on the path to North American energy independence.

Thus, item number 1 in his budget is land zoning and a pipeline approval i.e. nothing to do with the expenditure and revenue trends which he used to motivate the need for such a budget. Also, the use of the term "North American" in that energy independence clause is deliberate. Even under his giveaways to oil companies, he needs to assume Canadian oil as part of the picture to claim no imports from Those People.