Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking member of the Budget Committee and incoming chairman if Republicans capture the House in November, has a budget plan called “America’s Roadmap.” Right-wing pundits have applauded the plan, calling it “bold,” but reporters have noted that few Republicans have been willing to go on the record and actually cosponsor the legislation.

Yesterday at a town hall in Carmichael, California, a constituent got up and told Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) that she had visited the America’s Roadmap website after Lungren had told her at a previous town hall to visit it to see how Republicans would operate differently than the current Congress. She said she was unimpressed, and, as someone who “watches Fox News all day,” she wanted to see Tea Party principles of eliminating “almost everything” the federal government does. Lungren largely sidestepped her comment, and told the audience that he would promote national defense but cut spending for bicycle trails. After the town hall, ThinkProgress approached Lungren — who has not cosponsored Ryan’s budget — for clarification:

TP: Well, what about the Roadmap?

LUNGREN: The Paul Ryan Roadmap is, that is the best long term look at trying to deal with our fiscal insanity right now that anybody has done. But that doesn’t mean I would sign on to everything. Paul Ryan would probably look for some changes. But no one else has had the courage to try to come forward with a comprehensive approach, that’s what I said.

TP: But when you talk about “courage,” you haven’t cosponsored the Roadmap even though you’re endorsing it now. Would you endorse it before the election and cosponsor the bill?

LUNGREN: I don’t know.

Watch it:

Lungren tried to remain coy about many of his policy positions. Asked by another person at the town hall if he would sign onto a bill to repeal the Wall Street reform law passed by Congress earlier this year, he said he would “consider” it.

There is a reason why Republicans have tried to hide their support for the Ryan budget. The budget plan privatizes Social Security, creates a privatized-style voucher system for Medicare, and freezes nonsecurity discretionary spending from 2010-2019. As the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities notes, the Ryan budget would not even balance the budget or seriously reduce the national debt. It would, however, cut benefits for generations of elderly Americans and place millions into poverty.

With the economy in recession and a growing number of Americans going without health insurance coverage, the big health insurers are still posting impressive profits. Wellpoint, the nation’s largest insurer by membership, “reported a 4% increase in profit for the second quarter that helped generate earnings of $1.6 billion since the beginning of the year – a 26% increase over the same period in 2009,″ and Aetna said its “second-quarter profits rose 42 percent, with a net income of $491 million, compared with $346.6 million for the same quarter last year.” Earlier this week, Health Care for American Now! (HCAN) released a report which found that CEOs from the 10 largest for-profit health insurance companies “collected pay of $228.1 million, up from $85.5 million in 2008.” As a group, insurance CEOs saw a “167 percent raise,” while “Americans saw their averages wages increase by about 2 percent.” Insurers are spending less on health care and seeing higher profits:

These numbers contradict insurers’ claim that stringent regulations would jeopardize the industry and, as the Wonk Room argues, should embolden regulators to impose tough consumer protections.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker struck down California’s Proposition 8, which prohibited same-sex couples from marrying in the state. Today, Walker lifted the stay on his decision, announcing that it will go into effect next week unless the appeals court issues a stay. Though the Republican response has been muted, some GOP lawmakers and a number of right-wing activists have been condemning both last week’s ruling and Judge Walker himself. Today, nationally-syndicated conservative Washington Examiner columnist Cal Thomas took the attacks to an entirely new level:

The decision by a single, openly gay federal judge to strike down the will of 7 million Californians, tradition dating back millennia (not to mention biblical commands, which the judge decided, in his capacity as a false god, to also invalidate) is judicial vigilantism equal to Roe v. Wade. [...]

Most great powers unravel from within before invading armies (or in America’s case, terrorists) conquer them. A preacher might develop a good sermon on how nations fare when they mock God.

No less a theological thinker than Abraham Lincoln concluded that our Civil War might have been God’s judgment for America’s tolerance of slavery. If that were so, why should “the Almighty,” as Lincoln frequently referred to God, stay His hand in the face of our celebration of same-sex marriage?

Despite Thomas’ outrageous remarks, polling from late July shows that a majority of Californians would vote to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. Additionally, a CNN poll released yesterday finds that a majority of Americans believe that “gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to be married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid.” As Judge Walker wrote in his decision, “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.” Today, Walker lifted the stay on his ruling, permitting same-sex marriages to resume in California. The decision will go into effect August 18th, allowing time for the Ninth Circuit Court to hear an appeal. (HT Andrew Sullivan)

– Charlie Eisenhood