Ryan Pick Excites Foes of Tech Regulation
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is best known as a budget wonk, and doesn’t have a major profile on technology issues. Still, his pick by Mitt Romney to join the Republican presidential ticket has energized a group of libertarian-leaning experts on tech policy who look past Ryan’s lack of issue-area expertise and focus on the free-market philosophy they believe drives his plan to flatten the tax code and shrink government. The bigger perspective here, said Berin Szoka, president of the think tank TechFreedom, is that “ultimately this debate about Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security and entitlements is really a debate about the future level of taxation.” The reality is, he said, “the tech sector is likely to bear a significant portion of the future tax burden.”