Ryan's Approval Has Dropped Like A Rock

Last August, just after he was chosen as Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan's approval rate among the general public stood at 50% (a pretty good figure), and many thought he was the future of the Republican Party. Now it looks like neither of those are true. At the CPAC conference (which should have been good for Ryan considering his far-right views), he finished a disappointing fifth place in the presidential straw poll (at 6%) -- far behind favorites Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, and even behind Rick Santorum and Chris Christie (who was not even invited to the event).

But it isn't just among conservatives that he seems to have fallen from grace. His popularity among the general public has dropped sharply. In a new Rasmussen Poll, Ryan's favorable rating now rests at 35% (while his unfavorable number has risen to 54%). That's a drop in favorability of 15 points in the last seven months. Is it because he and Romney lost the election? I doubt it. For the general public the race was always between Obama and Romney (and Romney committed political suicide with his 47% remark).

I believe his dropping favorability is due to the ridiculous policies he continues to pursue. He has ignored the fact that the Republican economic policies were repudiated by the voters in the last election -- and in numerous polls since that election. He continues to propose cutting Social Security and turning Medicare into a voucher program, even though huge majorities of the population oppose both of those ideas. He continues to fight for a huge tax cut for the rich, even though large majorities of the public think the rich should pay more in taxes. He continues to fight for even more cuts in education, health care, social programs, and environmental programs, even though the public wants those programs to remain funded. And he has not included any money for job creation in his budget, even though a new Gallup Poll shows huge majorities (even among Republicans) want new job creation (even if it requires more government spending).

He also continues to talk about cutting the budget, but even though he wants to drastically cut the discretionary budget, his lowering taxes for the rich would more than cover those cuts. He has proposed $5.2 trillion in budget cuts for the next decade, but his tax cuts for the rich would lower revenues by at least $5.7 trillion over the same period. In other words, his budget would not cut the deficit -- it would make the deficit much larger. And it would do it by punishing ordinary Americans while rewarding the rich (and the corporations).

Paul's popularity has dropped because he still proposes economic policies that are opposed by a clear majority of Americans. The Ryan budget may be popular with Wall Street and the teabaggers, but it is anathema to the denizens of Main Street America.