Today’s selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate is encouraging to me.  Not because I have any great insight as to which candidate gives Romney the best chance of beating Obama this fall – I don’t know anything about the art of politics.

What I do know is that our nation’s greatest problem is the state of our economy – the debt, the sagging GDP, the drop in productivity, the unemployment rate, declining personal wealth and income, and the inability of our government to change its failed fiscal policies.   If we solve our economic problems, most of our other problems will solve themselves.

On this blog you’ve heard me opine about how us “Old Bean Counters” could get things straightened out.  I feel like Ryan is one of us.  Not so much old, but he is definitely a Bean Counter.

He stands alone as the only person in DC able to produce a do-able budget that points to a brighter future (although I would advocate a more aggressive turnaround).  He knows that any successful business – or government – must be run by the numbers.  Not by feelings, or wishes, or diplomacy, or hope.

Ryan has shown that he is practical, realistic, and optimistic.  He is able to cut to the chase and make a decision.  He knows how to hold people and processes accountable through controls.  Our government is no different from a business – Dollars In, Dollars Out.  Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail.

From the somewhat benign position of vice president, Ryan would not be able to make sweeping changes on his own.  But the fact that Romney chose him indicates to me that Mitt “gets it”.  He is a realist, and he knows that straightening out the economy must be top priority.

So in addition to his veep candidacy, I would also like to hereby nominate Paul Ryan for the lofty position of “Chief Bean Counter”.  We need ya, buddy.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

‘Cause he’s oh, so good,
And he’s oh, so fine,
And he’s oh, so healthy,
In his body and his mind.
He’s a well respected man about town,
Doing the best things so conservatively.

A Well Respected Man – the Kinks