Paul Ryan Defended Stimulus When George W. Bush Wanted It in 2002 [View all]

[Hissyspit]

Source: Ryan Grim / Huffington Post

Paul Ryan Defended Stimulus -- When George W. Bush Wanted It In 2002 (VIDEO)

Posted: 08/18/2012 11:16 pm Updated: 08/19/2012 8:20 am

WASHINGTON - When Congressman Paul Ryan has been asked the past few years about the value of stimulus to the sagging economy and the nation's jobless, the Wisconsin Republican has dismissed it as meaningless, and dubbed it "sugar-high economics."

But that's when President Obama is pushing for the spending. When it was President George W. Bush arguing for more stimulus to boost a slow economy in the early 2000s, Ryan's economic analysis was entirely different.

"What we're trying to accomplish today with the passage of this third stimulus package is to create jobs and help the unemployed," Ryan said, in comments unearthed by MSNBC's 'Up with Chris Hayes' and provided to HuffPost. "What we're trying to accomplish is to pass the kinds of legislation that when they've passed in the past have grown the economy and gotten people back to work."

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"It's more than just giving someone an unemployment check," he said then. "It's also helping those people with their health insurance while they've lost their jobs and more important than just that unemployment check, it's to do what we can to give people a paycheck."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/paul-ryan-bush-stimulus_n_1803761.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012