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Young man in a hurry
At 34, Paul Ryan has made his mark in Congress
By KATHERINE M. SKIBA
kskiba@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 3, 2004
Washington - Now the sixth youngest member of the House, Paul Ryan worried when he was elected in 1998 that he'd be seen as a "young punk."
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Paul Ryan
"I believe in individualism versus collectivism. The individual is the nucleus of our society and our economy, not the government." 
A Democrat was in the White House then, the economy sizzled, and Osama bin Laden was not a household name. And Ryan, a voluble, boyishly handsome 28-year-old bachelor then, an Irish Catholic from the fifth generation of a successful Janesville family, inevitably drew comparisons to John F. Kennedy.
The conservative, Republican son of the Midwest is no Jack Kennedy - with respect to ideology, party or geography. But admirers continue to breathe the word "president" as they laud this intense, personable, politically conservative lawmaker who draws kudos from GOP notables.
Today, Ryan, once merely a Capitol Hill staffer, is embracing challenges no smaller than revising the way the U.S. budget is drawn up, salvaging Social Security and trying to alter the tax code to stave off manufacturing job losses.
He is a disciple of supply side economics, a deficit hawk and champion of capitalism and free enterprise. His philosophy? "I believe in individualism versus collectivism," is how he puts it. "The individual is the nucleus of our society and our economy, not the government."
A former altar boy faithful to his church, he is conservative, too, on social issues.
Top conservative ranking
The sum of the parts is that among the four House Republican lawmakers from Wisconsin, none is more conservative than Ryan, a recent analysis by the National Journal found.
In his first few years in the House, it wasn't unusual for the Capitol Hill police to tell him to halt when he approached the floor to vote. "No staff or pages on the floor," they'd say.
Ryan, in his third term, breezes past security now. Married with two children, he's gone from focusing on work and outdoor passions - chiefly bowhunting, fishing and climbing 14,000-footers in Colorado - to speaking poetically about his wife, daughter and son.
"Being married and having kids is a new form of pure love that I never felt before," he beams. "It's like your heart's walking around in somebody else's body. If I lose this job, I still will be a profoundly happy man, because I have a wonderful wife and two great children."
His wife, the former Janna Little, is a former tax attorney and Capitol Hill aide who hails from a prominent Oklahoma family of Democrats. Her late aunt and namesake was the Sooner State's first lady while married to Gov. David Boren, later a U.S. senator, now a university president.
As the Ryans' world has turned, and in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the country's as well, the lawmaker has won notice from party elders.
Now 34, he still can't shake the adjective "young."
A post-baby boomer
Ryan says his age has proved an asset, not the liability he initially feared. Older Republicans embraced him as a rare post-baby boomer in Congress with a life marked by, as he remembers, Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, peace-through-strength and stagflation.
He got spots on talk shows, invitations to appear at news conferences and seats on congressional delegation trips. He earned a place, as a sophomore, on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
How did Ryan come so far, so fast? In truth he grew up a long time ago. He was 16 years old when his father, an attorney, died of a heart attack at 55. Ryan was in the 10th grade, the youngest of four. Until age 18, he collected Social Security survivor's benefits, which he put away for college.
The loss triggered changes. His mother returned to school to study interior design, and the two grew close. "It was just the two of us, since my siblings were off in college."
Then his maternal grandmother, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, moved in. "I did a lot of growing up pretty fast then," Ryan says. His father's death "gave me a pretty cold, quick lesson, which was that life was short, so make the best of it. Don't wait around for things to happen, make them happen."
Early jobs as a 20-something in D.C. gave him other father figures. He worked for Kansas Republican Sam Brownback in the House and Senate. He put in a stint at Empower America, an advocacy group led by William Bennett and former Sen. Jack Kemp of New York. Today, Ryan says: "I got passion from Jack Kemp. I got courage from Bill Bennett. And I got compassion and understanding from Sam Brownback."
Advice from Bennett
Bennett, the former education secretary, drug czar and self-appointed values arbiter whose reputation took a hit when the media reported on his high-stakes gambling habit, remains a friend and booster.
Ryan sought his counsel when he first mulled running. Ryan had been encouraged to run by Republican Mark Neumann of Janesville, who left his 1st District House seat in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold.
Confessing his aspiration, Ryan said: "Dr. Bennett, I have to ask you if this passes the laugh test."
"You'd be great," replied Bennett, who stumped for him.
Bennett, who on Monday launches a radio talk show, still coaches Ryan to aim high. From Bennett: "I keep telling him, 'Run for president, run for Senate. Start the plan.' "
What are the odds of Ryan in the White House? "I don't do odds anymore," Bennett quips. "I don't bet on races, and I don't do odds."
He salutes Ryan as "a natural," praising his athleticism, appearance ("a great looking guy") and singling out his character as his best attribute.
Most think Ryan is eyeballing whether Herb Kohl, who, like Feingold, is a Democrat, will retire. He acknowledges that politicos have suggested he try to do what Neumann couldn't: defeat Feingold, now campaigning for a third term as Ryan goes for a fourth.
Says he likes Feingold
Ryan ruled out a Senate bid, not wanting to spend 18 months traveling and raising a $7 million war chest - what he says would be needed - with two young children and work on Ways and Means. Moreover, despite differing with Feingold on issues across the spectrum, excepting fiscal discipline, Ryan says: "It would be tough to mount an aggressive campaign against someone you've known and liked personally for a long time."
Both attorney's sons, they grew up in Janesville. Their mothers were friends; their fathers practiced law in the same building.
Feingold, for his part, says it's a good to have another Janesville native in the delegation. He says the community taught them the importance of manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin has lost 82,900 such jobs since December 2000.
Ryan, who believes that President Bush's tax cuts have reignited the economy, acknowledges that factory jobs continue to disappear. He'd like to rewrite the tax code to give businesses incentives to keep jobs in the U.S.
Meanwhile, he is on a quest to revamp the way the U.S. budgets and spends its money. He decries pork, wasteful spending, duplicative federal programs and what he calls the country's "miserable" job of doing oversight on agencies and programs.
"The budget process is broken," he laments. "There are a million tricks lawmakers can use to hike spending and get around existing rules meant to keep the budget in check."
Wants two-year budget
He's behind a multifaceted measure, the Family Budget Protection Act, to put the federal government on a simpler, biennial budget with tougher checks against runaway spending. One aspect: Money would be allocated in non-election years, to curb the temptation to bring home the bacon, and oversight done in election years. Another provision would give the president greater powers to trim spending.
Whipping the budget into shape, he reasons, will make it easier to reform entitlement programs and rewrite the tax code, which he says now "penalizes success."
He favors letting younger workers establish personal investment accounts with a percentage of their Social Security dollars, saying investing a portion in stocks and bonds will yield higher returns. He also wants more competition and choice introduced within Medicare, saying it will drive down health care costs.
"If we don't fix our entitlement problems, according to Social Security actuaries, we're going to have FICA taxes over 20 percent in about 10 to 20 years. (The current total of employers' and employees' contributions for Social Security and Medicare is about 15%.) And you can't have a good, growing economy when we send a fifth of our income to the government for two programs before we even pay any other tax."
Ryan says his budget reforms are common sense. He learned to live within his means at a young age, remembering that his dad had him pay half the cost of things such as sporting goods and stereo equipment: If Ryan wanted a 20-gauge shotgun, a 10-speed bike or stereo, he had to open up his own wallet, hence he mowed lawns, flipped burgers at McDonald's, sold meat for Oscar Mayer and had a host of other jobs.
Not quite a millionaire
Today, he's on secure financial footing; at the end of 2002, he reported a net worth of $890,000. He points out, though, that since entering Congress he has had no ties to a cousin's firm, Ryan Central Inc., a construction and earth-moving company headquartered in Janesville.
Democrats, from state party chair Linda Honold to Chet Bell of Mukwonago, who is girding to run against Ryan this year, paint him as a man too conservative for his southeastern Wisconsin district, roughly split between Democrats and the GOP.
Bell, 40, the son of West Allis Mayor Jeannette Bell, teaches theater production at Marquette University. A first-time office seeker, he had $5,700 in his war chest at the end of 2003. Ryan, by contrast, had $977,000 on hand.
Ryan is running, but meantime says he doesn't want to be a "lifer" in Congress and may go into business someday.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) praises Ryan's knack for crafting policy and says he's been "invaluable" on the Ways and Means panel. "He's bright. He's articulate. He's a player here, already, as a young man. And I think he has a great future in this place if he chooses to stay here."