Rachel Maddow Skewers Paul Ryan’s Failed 20-Year Career As A Deficit Fraud

Rachel Maddow shredded the myth that Paul Ryan is a master of shrinking the federal budget deficit on Wednesday, saying his claim to be a numbers wizard is a “party trick” more than anything else.

“This is the founding mythology of Paul Ryan over his 20 years in Congress,” Maddow said about the claim that Speaker Ryan is a fiscally responsible budget expert.

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The MSNBC star tore into Paul Ryan’s terrible record when it comes to the deficit:

This is the founding mythology of Paul Ryan over his 20 years in Congress. And at the beginning of last year, his party finally took control of the White House and the Senate and the House where he is in charge. And he has a huge majority in the House. He can do what he wants. With that full control, they have enacted the some of Paul Ryan’s policies that he has been campaigning for for 20 years. He’s finally seen his fiscal plans come into existence. Two days ago we got the mathematical fiscal assessment of the result of those policies. The deficit is now going to shoot past $1 trillion by 2020, as a share of the American economy. The deficit is going to reach levels not seen since the economic collapse of 2008. Before that, the last time deficits were this big was World War II because we were paying for a world war at the time. The debt is going to rise $13 trillion in the next ten years.

Paul Ryan failed to accomplish his number one goal

In politics, it’s easy for myths to spread. In many cases, they’re almost impossible to dispell once enough people believe them.

That seems to be what happened in the case of Paul Ryan, where it has inexplicably become conventional wisdom that he is a master of all things related to the federal budget.

But as Maddow noted on Wednesday, his 20-year record in Congress shows what a laughable lie that is. He further proved that by pushing for a monstrosity tax bill, which will balloon the deficit.

When the history books on this era of American politics are written, Paul Ryan won’t just go down as an appeaser of one of the most dangerous presidents in U.S. history, but he’ll also be remembered as the biggest deficit fraud Congress has ever seen.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.