Paul Ryan... Ready for the Battle?

Paul Ryan was interviewed recently on Charlie Rose.  Here is a key moment:

"We're not talking small ball anymore. This is not school uniforms or prescription drugs. This is debt crisis, the economy. Is America going to be the leader in the 21st century or not? Are we going to have what I would an opportunity society with a social safety net, or are we going to go over and become a social democracy, a cradle to grave welfare state, like a European kind of a society. And the difference in the next few years will determine what that outcome will be."

Ryan gets better and better because he's a serious reader and thinker who has studied the issues in detail, not a glib pol who mouths faculty room bromides that only sound intellectual.  (You know who I'm talking about.)   Here he's channeling the short, brilliant book by Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future.   I've read it; I agree with it; it's common sense that the Regular Guys have long known.