Paul Ryan: “Give Me Thomas Aquinas…Don’t Give Me Ayn Rand”

 

 Those things which some possess in excess of reasonable needs are owed by natural law to the sustenance of the poor.

"Is all that “daring”? Well, Thelma and Louise were “daring” too, but they ended up at the bottom of a canyon. If the Democrats handle this situation properly, that’s where this ticket will end up too, and then the rest of us—the people who don’t want federal policy to be based on Atlas Shrugged—can finally and fully press the case to the right that America is not behind you, and please grow up.....and then the rest of us—the people who don’t want federal policy to be based on Atlas Shrugged."

- Michael Tomaksy, Romney’s Stunning, Terrible Choice of Ryan for VP, The Daily Beast, 11 August 2012

“Give me Thomas Aquinas…don’t give me Ayn Rand”

- Congressman Paul Ryan, The Catholic World Report, 26 April 2012

 Paul Ryan disavows Rand’s “atheist philosophy”; cites Pope Benedict

By Catherine Harmon

In an interview with National Review Online’s Robert Costa, Rep. Paul Ryan denies that he is, as Paul Krugman claimed in the New York Times, “an Ayn Rand devotee,” calling such descriptions of his political philosophy “an urban legend”:

“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them.  They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman, but it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.

I reject her philosophy.  It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas, who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. Don’t give me Ayn Rand."

Ryan also mentions Pope Benedict XVI’s statements on global economics in defending his proposed budget:

Ryan cites Light of the World, a book-length interview of Pope Benedict XVI, as an example of how the Catholic Church takes the global debt problem seriously. “We are living at the expense of future generations,” the pope says. “In this respect, it is plain that we are living in untruth.” Ryan takes those words seriously. “The pope was really clear,” he says.

Today Ryan delivered a high-profile lecture at Georgetown University—after being criticized by more than 90 members of the university’s faculty for his “continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few.”

The letter from the Georgetown faculty also links the Ryan budget with Randian thought, stating “In short, your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.”

At the National Catholic Register, Ryan gives a detailed defense of his budget, particularly against charges that it is contrary to Catholic social teaching:

Our budget ends welfare for those who don’t need it, but strengthens welfare programs for those who do. Government safety-net programs have been stretched to the breaking point in recent years, failing the very citizens who need help the most. When solidarity and subsidiarity are in balance, civil society is revitalized, not displaced. We rightly pride ourselves on looking out for one another — and government has an important role to play in that. But relying on distant government bureaucracies to lead this effort just hasn’t worked.

    …

Our budget averts the looming debt-fueled economic crisis, which would hurt the poor the first and the worst. It lifts the debt and frees the nation from the constraints of ever-expanding government. And it promotes economic growth and opportunity, with bold reforms to make the tax code fair and equitable and a credible, principled plan to prevent a debt crisis from ever happening.

Our budget has been criticized for giving tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the poor. It does no such thing. Instead of taking more and more from the paychecks of working Americans, the House budget proposes a comprehensive reform of the tax code to make it fair, simple and competitive. We would lower rates for everyone across the board. But revenue would still rise every year under our budget because our economy grows and because our budget proposes to eliminate special-interest loopholes that go primarily to the influential and well-off. Washington should not micromanage people’s decisions through the tax code. Basic economics and basic morality both tell us that people have a right to keep and decide how to spend their hard-earned dollars.

I AM an unabashed Randian.  Paul Ryan, to my dismay, is not.  So, please, do not label him as a disciple of Ayn Rand.  He is an Austrian, but he is not a Randian.  Anyone to the right of Marx is a Randian in the eyes of The Ferret.  Do not be fooled. 

If he were a Randian, he wouldn't be trying to "save" Medicare and Social Security. He would END them and do it immediately. If he were a Randian, he would not have voted for Part D, DHS, TARP, to raise the debt ceiling, to increase the size of the Federal budget, etc.

I wish that he would govern by the rules of Atlas Shrugged, but he will not.

Sophie

“Distributive justice does not render to the human being the totality of his due.'  Man seeks for something much more– for salvation– which can only come through Christ and his Church.  EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH THE FORCE OF HUMAN LAW CANNOT SUCCEED.  THE RADICAL IMPULSE TO ELIMINATE ALL OPPRESSIVE STRUCTURES, HOPING THEREBY TO BRING A JUST AND EQUAL SOCIETY, IS DOOMED....Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil.  We have experienced in collapsed socialism where this thinking can lead to."

- Pope Benedict XVI

"Hence, it is clear that THE MAIN TENET OF SOCIALISM, COMMUNITY OF GOODS, MUST BE UTTERLY REJECTED, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonwealth. The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property."

- Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum

"To remedy these wrongs the socialists, working on the poor man's envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies. They hold that by thus transferring property from private individuals to the community, the present mischievous state of things will be set to rights, inasmuch as each citizen will then get his fair share of whatever there is to enjoy...They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community."

- Leo XIII

"It is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his very own...Socialists, therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of individuals to the community at large, strike at the interests of every wage-earner, since they would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his wages, and thereby of all hope and possibility of increasing his resources and of bettering his condition in life."

- Leo XIII

"NO ONE CAN BE AT THE SAME TIME A GOOD CATHOLIC AND A TRUE SOCIALIST."

- Pius XI

"Most important, the Christian faith recognizes that all human institutions are flawed, and that sinful men are likely to misuse their power....Is capitalism Christian? No. It neither advances existing human virtues nor corrects ingrained personal vices; it merely reflects them. But socialism is less consistent with several Biblical tenets for it exacerbates the worst of men’s flaws. BY DIVORCING EFFORT FROM REWARD, STIRRING UP COVETOUSNESS AND ENVY, AND DESTROYING THE FREEDOM THAT IS A NECESSARY PRECONDITION FOR VIRTUE, IT TEARS AT THE JUST SOCIAL FABRIC THAT CHRISTIANS SHOULD SEEK TO ESTABLISH."

- Pius XI

"The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency."

- John Paul II

"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much.  Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic."

     

- Benedict XVI, Truth and Tolerance

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (II Corinthians 9:7)

Now, people like Allidunce can continue with their moonbattery that Christ was a Socialist and Paul Ryan is the anti-Christ, but the "experts" most definitely disagree.