Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath

Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the waiter's presentation, uncorking and decanting of the pricey Pinot Noir caught the attention of another diner who had already recognized Ryan sitting with two other men nearby.

Susan Feinberg, an associate business professor at Rutgers, was at Bistro Bis celebrating her birthday with her husband that night. When she saw the label on the bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru Ryan's table had ordered, she quickly looked it up on the wine list and saw that it sold for an eye-popping $350, the most expensive wine in the house along with one other with the same pricetag.

Feinberg, an economist by training, was even more appalled when the table ordered a second bottle. She quickly did the math and figured out that the $700 in wine the trio consumed over the course of 90 minutes amounted to more than the entire weekly income of a couple making minimum wage.

"We were just stunned," said Feinberg, who e-mailed TPM about her encounter later the same evening. "I was an economist so I started doing the envelope calculations and quickly figured out that those two bottles of wine was more than two-income working family making minimum wage earned in a week."

She was outraged that Ryan was consuming hundreds of dollars in wine while Congress was in the midst of intense debates over whether to cut seniors' safety net, and she didn't know whether Ryan or his companions was going to pay for the wine and whether the two men were lobbyists. She snapped a few shots with her cell phone to record the wine purchase.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011 ... t-noir.php



"Let them eat cake...."

"Only the little people pay taxes"--Leona Helmsley

"It's good to be the king..." -- Mel Brooks, "History of the World--Part 1"

And we are surprised?

Well, if people are outraged over the White House staff getting raises (in the Ring) then surely they will be outraged over this.

Right?

Not really...

:rofl rofllol Are you guys serious? This is the BIGGEST NON story ever posted here! Obama spends 1000 times that on galas and other events every month. And he spends that much on golf 72 times or more. They have taken trips and vacations for hundreds of thousands while people can't find work. The Minnesota Governor, when their government is shut down and people are put out of work, has decided to keep his personal chef. You are really talking about 1 bottle of wine?? You guys aren't even reaching anymore! You are falling all over yourselves looking for something! A total new low for you!!! :rofl rofllol

No, it's two bottles of $350 wine, Viking. You were one that posted outrage over the White House staff salary increases, so you should be outraged over this.

Personally, I don't care what these guys drink. They want to spend $700 on two bottles of wine, so what? It's their money and they can spend it however they desire.

ETA: forgot those emoticons that you so love. :woo hoo: :woo hoo: :bash :bash :bash rofllol rofllol

Why kate.....I'm sure viking complained bitterly about all of the Republican presidents' trips.....all of their vacations.....all of their golfing....especially all of Reagans trips out to his ranch, and Bush I to Kinnebunkport.....and Bush II to Crawford.....and their galavanting around the world......he must have, surely he wouldn't hold a democratic president to a higher standard than he has held his beloved Republican presidents? would he? please say it isn't so........

And the taxpayers weren't paying directly for the wine, just the lobbyists, unlike Pelosis well stocked liquor cabinet on her taxpayer provided jet.

$350 wine? I think I would be just as happy with 3 buck Chuck.

Any bottle of wine you get in a fancy restaurant is going to cost a lot. Let's discuss issues more important to our nation. Does Ryan get $350 haircuts too?

We could, if we wanted to, engage in the same demagoguery as our good friend LJ here targeting regressives, but what would be the point? To show that the power that the regressives have sought to amass in the federal government inevitably leads to abuse of power and the creation of a self serving, corrupt oligarchy? They knew that when they started down that road to consolidate the power over 200 years ago.

Alexander Hamilton, the original monarchist from which all regressives descend, said that the government of Great Britain, replete with all of its corruption, was the greatest form of government ever devised by man; and that to remove that corruption from it would be to render it impotent. He wanted to do away with states entirely and have one national government in control of everything; have a president elected for life; a Senate composed of lifelong tenures from the aristocracy class. See any correlations between his twisted vision and the reality that exists as a result of the "progressive" gains over the last 100 years? Even a blind squirrel can find that nut.

And now they dare complain about corruption within the oligarchy they have created? Really?