Ryan Characterizes Obama: "A Pyromaniac in a Field of Straw Men"

Kevin Glass | April 14, 2011 11:14 AM

Rep. Paul Ryan gave a speech In Washington D.C. that served as a forceful rejoinder to yesterday's Obama speech. As usual, he was on-message and wonky. He walked in, hands full of graphs and charts. "It wouldn't be me if I didn't bring some charts," he quipped to the roomful of reporters. "I've been doing PowerPoint before it was cool!"

Ryan hit three main points: President Obama's budget doesn't actually exist, that yesterday's speech was more campaign platform than policy proposal, and that the caricature that Obama laid out of the GOP plan was unfair and demagogic.

Asked about the prospects for a compromise long-term proposal, Ryan said simply, "this damages them... The President was," and Ryan said he was quoting here, "a pyromaniac in a field of straw men."

Ryan seemed pessimistic about the ability to bridge the gaps between his proposal and what the President laid out. Host Fred Barnes noted that Ryan's budget will pass the House soon and asked where the budget debate will go from there. "I don't know," Ryan responded. It may turn out that the GOP's plan to fix America's long-term entitlement crisis will die at the door of Democrats in the Senate, or at the hands of the President.