奥巴马遭遇新对手（节选）

    奥巴马召开冬季医疗保健峰会的前夜，众议员保罗•瑞安正在Talay Thai餐厅用餐，这家朴实无华的餐厅用的是金属椅子和胶合板桌子。在这个严寒的冬日晚上，瑞安从他那狭窄的国会山办公室漫步到Talay餐厅，身上连件外套都没穿——他说：“我可是威斯康星人！”当天晚上，他将睡在办公室里的一张简易小床上——他已经这样度过了很多夜晚。

    考虑到他一边啜饮着冰水，一边感慨美国“正在梦游般走向债务危机”，对这样一个政治家来说，保持简朴确实很恰当。瑞安对我说：“不出几年，将会有一次政府债券拍卖失败，资本市场将陷入疯狂，美联储（Fed）和财政部（Treasury）将紧急赶往国会山，要求获得巨额紧急援助。奥巴马医保改革将使危机进一步加深、来得更快。”

    如今，共和党人发出这种反对增加政府开支的言论乃是司空见惯之事。但有一点使得瑞安与众不同，他在众议院任职的11年间一直致力于宣扬自由市场理念，但其观点获得的关注并不多。

    如今，这位时年40的威斯康辛州简斯维尔人正成为共和党在经济政策方面的权威人物，因为他为如何解决赤字问题制订了详实的路线图，而民主党和共和党都认识到美国财政未来危机四伏。（美国财政的未来到底有多黯淡？总统的2011年预算预测，2020年财政赤字将突破1万亿美元，相当于国内生产总值（GDP）的4.2%，这不可能维持下去——上述数字还是假定失业率较低且经济增长速度不错的情况。

    并不是只有共和党人突然注意到瑞安对削减赤字与政府开支的观点。2010年早些时候共和党议员们在巴尔的摩集会，瑞安在会上的亮相如今已经广为人知，因为就连奥巴马总统也将他单独拿出来大做文章。“那是我的40岁生日，我正在吃午餐，6岁的儿子坐在我膝盖上，”瑞安惊奇地说，“突然间总统开始说起我，我大吃一惊。”

    译者：小宇

    On the eve of President Barack Obama's winter health-care summit, Rep. Paul Ryan is dining at Talay Thai, a no-frills restaurant with metal chairs and Formica tables. On this frigid evening, Ryan strolled coatless to Talay -- "I'm from Wisconsin!" he says -- from his cramped Capitol Hill office, where tonight, as on most nights, he'll sleep on a cot.

    Such frugality is fitting for a politician who, as he sips ice water, frets that America is "sleep-walking toward a debt crisis." Ryan tells me: "Within a few years a sale of government bonds will fail. The capital markets will go crazy, and the Fed and Treasury will run to Capitol Hill demanding a giant bailout. Adding Obamacare would make the crisis go deeper and arrive faster."

    It isn't unusual to hear such antispending rhetoric from Republicans these days. What makes Ryan a rarity is that he's been preaching cerebral free-market ideas during his 11 years in Congress, despite getting little attention for his views.

    Now the 40-year-old Janesville, Wis., native is emerging as the leading GOP voice on economic policy, thanks to his detailed blueprint for solving what both Democrats and Republicans agree is a perilous fiscal future. (How bad is America's financial picture? The President's budget for 2011 forecasts deficits running at more than $1 trillion, or an unsustainable 4.2% of GDP, in 2020 -- and that assumes low unemployment and decent growth of the economy.)

    Republicans aren't the only ones suddenly taking notice of Ryan's views on deficit reduction and government spending. During his now-famous appearance at the Republican congressional retreat in Baltimore earlier this year, the President singled out Ryan. "It was my 40th birthday, and I'm sitting at lunch with my 6-year-old son on my knee," marvels Ryan. "And the President starts talking about me. I was amazed!"