Rep. Paul Ryan compares Wisconsin protests to Cairo

Feb 17, 2011

01:50 PM

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Updated at 4:11 p.m. ET

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan compared the protests in his home state of Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan to the pro-democracy movement in Egypt.

Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, made his comments on MSNBC's Morning Joe program. In the Wisconsin state capital, teachers and labor union supporters swarmed the Senate chambers today to protest a bill that would strip most public employees of nearly all their collective bargaining rights.

"It's like Cairo's moved to Madison these days," Ryan said on MSNBC. "All of this demonstration ... it's fine. People should be able to express their way."

Ryan defended Walker, a friend and fellow Republican, for trying to get state workers to pay part of their health insurance and pension benefit costs, as their counterparts in the private sector do.

President Obama weighed in today on the Wisconsin budget fight, saying the proposal by Walker on collective bargaining rights "seems like more of an assault on unions."

House Speaker John Boehner criticized Obama for taking issue with Walker. The Ohio Republican said Walker is "listening to the people and confronting problems that have been neglected for years at the expense of jobs and economic growth."

Most of Ryan's interview was about Obama's 2012 budget plan, which has been roundly criticized by Boehner and his GOP colleagues. "Where the president has fallen in leadership, we intend to fill that gap," Ryan said.

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About Catalina Camia

Catalina Camia anchors the On Politics community. Catalina has focused on politics as a reporter or editor for much of her career. She was White House editor for USA TODAY during the 2008 presidential election and covered the GOP's grip on Congress in the mid-1990s for The Dallas Morning News. She has also been a journalist at nearly every national political convention since 1992. Her interests include baseball, movies, travel and cooking. A native of San Francisco, she is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

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