The Best Development In The Republican Party In A Long Time

Jillian Bandes | August 31, 2010 7:55 AM

The NRCC's "Young Guns" program provides funding to conservative up-and-comers who have met certain fund-raising goals and have a good chance at edging into office. It also goes farther than that — according to its website, the Young Guns is not just a campaign effort, but "an ongoing movement to go on offense and strengthen the GOP."

Young Guns is headed by Reps. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Paul Ryan (R-WI). Lo and behold, that's the same Paul Ryan making the country crazy with his fearless entitlement reform plan. Now, Ryan is incorporating that entitlement reform plan, called the Roadmap for America's Future, into a book that apparently lays out some of the principles that the Young Guns movement promotes.

Ryan didn't say whether this will be a guideline for the future direction of the GOP, or simply required reading for these up-and-coming Republicans. In a phone conference, he did say the road map was his own proposal and not the official proposal of the House Republican Conference. But the inclusion of his reform plan in this important policy document is a welcome development. Perhaps it indicates more widespread GOP support for an entitlement solution that finally sacrifices a some political capital for the hard fiscal austerity principles that we purport to uphold.