Paul Ryan has a reputation as the Republican Party’s moral compass and indefatigable truth-teller. But a closer look at his record reveals more than a few blemishes. Throughout his career, the Wisconsin Congressman hasn’t been afraid to tell a lie or two. Ryan has falsely claimed that he would not run for Speaker of the House (he did) and that President Obama’s economic policies exacerbated income inequality (they didn’t).
But perhaps most egregiously, Ryan, a well-known fitness nut, said he ran a marathon in under three hours. His real time? 4 hours 1 minute, 25 seconds.
Is nothing sacred, Mr. Speaker?
PAUL RYAN CLAIMED HE WOULD NOT RUN FOR SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
Paul Ryan said he would not run for Speaker of the House. “Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he will not enter the race for House speaker. ‘While I am grateful for the encouragement I’ve received, I will not be a candidate,’ Ryan said in a statement Thursday. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) unexpectedly dropped out of the speaker race Thursday, causing current House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to postpone the vote.” [Huffington Post, 10/8/15]
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Paul Ryan ran for Speaker of the House. “Rep. Paul Ryan was officially elected as the 54th speaker of the House after he got the votes of 236 members by the full House of Representatives. The vote was largely a formality after House Republicans nominated him for the position on Wednesday.” [CNN, 10/29/15]
PAUL RYAN LIED ABOUT PRES. OBAMA’S RECORD ON TACKLING ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
Paul Ryan said that President Obama’s economic policies had “exacerbated inequality. They’ve exacerbated stagnation. They’ve made things worse.” “But even as Mr. Ryan criticized proposals that could be viewed as pitting class against class, he acknowledged a reality that many Republicans have long avoided: The rich are getting much richer. Republicans once held that liberal economic policies would stifle ‘the job creators.’ Now, Mr. Ryan said, the creators are doing well. Others are not. ‘The Obamanomics that we’re practicing now have exacerbated inequality,’ he said. ‘They’ve exacerbated stagnation. They’re made things worse.’ Mr. Ryan continued: ‘The wealthy are doing really well. They’re practicing trickle-down economics now.’” [New York Times, 2/1/15]
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President Obama’s economic policies have reduced inequality. “What can be proven beyond a doubt is that, even if underlying economic trends have increased inequality, Obama’s economic policies have reduced it sharply. The stimulus included tax cuts for low-wage workers, and the Affordable Care Act was financed in part by higher taxes on the rich. […] After 2012, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts left the two parties at odds over the appropriate tax levels for the rich and the non-rich. Republicans like Ryan fiercely advocated extending the Bush tax cuts for all income groups, including the rich. Obama advocated extending them only for income below $250,000 a year. Republicans forced a compromise that raised the threshold, giving affluent Americans a larger tax cut than Obama wanted. Still, the result was much closer to Obama’s position than the Republican position, resulting in a further transfer of income from the rich to the non-rich: Plus, of course, the Affordable Care Act, in addition to its progressive financing mechanism, subsidized health insurance that mostly benefited Americans with modest incomes. Thus, Obamacare had an important inequality-reducing effect:” [New York, 2/2/15]
PAUL RYAN LIED ABOUT SUPREME COURT NOMINATIONS
Paul Ryan claimed there was precedent for not nominating a Supreme Court Justice in the midst of a presidential campaign. “On the issue of replacing the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Ryan said, ‘The president has every right to nominate somebody, but the Senate has equally every right not to bring someone through.’ […] ‘This is a generational pick for the Supreme Court. And there is a precedent for not putting someone through in the middle of a presidential campaign,’ Ryan said.” [CNBC, 2/23/16]
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On each of the five occasions that a Supreme Court vacancy occurred during an election year, the president made a nomination and the nominee was confirmed. “It’s rare for a Supreme Court vacancy to occur during a presidential election year — the last time was in 1940, although there were also two election-year nominations in 1968. But we could find no instances in which a president faced with a Supreme Court vacancy during a presidential election year did not make a nomination. It occurred five times between 1912 and 1940, and each time the nominee was confirmed. We rate Ryan’s statement False.” [PolitiFact Wisconsin, 3/4/16]
PAUL RYAN LIED ABOUT HIS FOOT SPEED
Paul Ryan said he ran a marathon in just under three hours. “H. H.: Are you still running? P. R.: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or [less]. H. H.: But you did run marathons at some point? P. R.: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great. H. H.: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best? P. R.: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something. H. H.: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University… P. R.: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.” [Hugh Hewitt Show via New Yorker, 9/1/12]
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Paul Ryan finished the marathon in just over 4 hours. “A spokesman for the Romney-Ryan campaign e-mailed Runner’s World today to say Ryan ran Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, while a college student in 1991. When asked about Ryan’s finishing time, the spokesman said, “His comments on the [radio] show were the best of his recollection.’ Ryan’s name does not show up in the 1991 race results provided by Grandma’s. Runner’s World checked 11 years of results for Grandma’s Marathon, from 1988 through 1998, and found a finisher in the 1990 race by the name of Paul D. Ryan, 20, of Minneapolis. Ryan’s middle name is Davis, and he was 20 in 1990. The finishing time listed was 4 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds.” [Runner’s World, 8/31/12]