April 30, 2012

If Paul Ryan were to become president or vice president someday, or speaker of the House, he would still likely be remembered for the work with which his name is almost always linked: the House GOP’s alternative budget, officially known as “The Path To Prosperity,” but inevitably referred to in media shorthand as “The Ryan Budget” or “The Ryan Plan.”

It is a plan that has carried him to the nation’s front pages in the years since he introduced the first version in 2008 and indeed, it propelled him to being the Veep candidate with the most media coverage between March 16 and April 16, according to HighBeam research. He bested popular Sen. Marco Rubio, 27 percent to 23.5 percent, according to the analysis of media attention, released last week.

The Ryan Budget, unlike its predecessors, has special significance in 2012: This is a presidential election year and The Ryan Budget is sure to be targeted by Democrats as a repository of “gloom and doom” and, perhaps, embraced by Republican officeholders and candidates as a program they will enact if they maintain control of the House and win the Senate and presidency this fall.

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