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Quote:
Paul Ryan, Fiscal Hawk, Broke With Mitt Romney To Support Auto Bailout
Reuters
* Republican VP candidate voted for 2008 auto bailout
* Ryan broke with party to try to save hometown GM plant
* Spending cuts "ideologue" also backed bank bailout
By Andy Sullivan
Aug 19 (Reuters) - When General Motors announced in 2008 that it would shut down its assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, local Representative Paul Ryan leaped into action.
The Republican met with company executives to try to change their minds. He lobbied the Obama administration for federal retraining and economic-development funds.
He even broke with his party -- and his future presidential running mate Mitt Romney -- to vote in Congress for a $15 billion federal bailout for GM and Chrysler as they teetered on the edge of insolvency.
Criticized by President Barack Obama this week as the "ideological leader" of cost-slashing Republicans in Congress, Ryan has veered from his budget-hawk stance at crucial times.
Along with the auto bailout vote, Ryan voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the $700 billion bank bailout that is anathema to Tea Party conservatives. He opposed Obama's 2009 stimulus effort, but his office sought to secure funding once it was signed into law.
Supporters say Ryan's actions during the auto bailout reveal a practical streak that will bode well for him if the Romney-Ryan ticket gets elected, as well as a willingness to take an unpopular stand if he thinks it is needed.
"The reason he's a vice presidential nominee, and the reason that I like him so much is because he takes a problem, he dissects it fully, and he makes the best possible decision based on what can get done," said Republican Representative Devin Nunes, a close ally who opposed the auto-bailout vote.
Ryan, whose extended family owns a unionized construction company, has occasionally voted against his party to support some labor union priorities. He backed a law in 2011 that prohibits federal contractors from paying lower-than-average wages, a rule that some economists say inflates the cost of federal projects. Ryan has voted against union interests on other occasions.