Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan spoke to the Journal Sentinel editorial board Friday. Credit: John Klein

SHARE Video: Fourth & State Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, joined the Editorial Board Friday for a special edition of the Board's "Fourth & State" video segment.

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The Republican Party has a moral responsibility to offer alternatives to governing in Washington, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan said Friday.

Speaking to members of the Journal Sentinel editorial board, as well as reporters and editors, the Janesville Republican said that the country is in a precarious state economically and that it's not enough to just win an election.

"I don't like the direction the president is taking," Ryan said. "I should criticize those. I also should offer alternatives. It's not enough to run against somebody. We have a moral responsibility to offer alternatives . . . Our country is in a very precarious moment."

Ryan's comments came a day after a speech in Washington before the Conservative Political Action Conference in which he sounded the same theme of encouraging conservatives to be bolder and more ambitious.

On Friday, Ryan pressed his case further.

"Give the country a choice," he said. "Let the country choose which of these two paths they want to go on. You win an election by affirmation where you have the moral authority and the obligation to actually solve the problems you are elected to do."

Ryan said an affirming election would be a contest in which "the country helps us break this gridlock. Where the country says, 'We don't like them. We think this country is on the wrong track. We're sick of this gridlock. And we want to vote for actual solutions.' "

Ryan said if the Republican Party ran on what he called "vague platitudes and what we don't like, we could probably win this election.

"But you win that election by default," Ryan said.

Asked about the current race for the Republican presidential nomination, Ryan said he believed Republican primary voters are "waiting for a Ronald Reagan. I don't think Ronald Reagan today was who he was then. We built up these expectations. There is no such thing as a perfect candidate."

Asked if he thought Reagan could win in 2012, Ryan said yes. "This was a man who spoke of conviction and passion, who articulated the founding principles and who offered bold solutions," Ryan said.

Ryan placed some of the blame for Congress' inability to enact change on his own party, though he said there are examples of bipartisanship. He said he has been able to work with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a liberal Oregon Democrat, on Medicare.

The Republican Party, he said, made mistakes, too. Republicans, he said, "got confused by being pro-business instead of pro-market."

Ryan explained that Republicans thought that if they helped local businesses with a specific issue by carving out an exception in legislation, that would constitute a free-enterprise solution.

"It was really corporate welfare," he said. "What we ended up doing is raising barriers to entry against their would-be competitors, against small business. That was the philosophical problem. We have to get right with that. Go back to being pro-free enterprise. Equal play, fair rules."

By contrast, Ryan said, President Barack Obama espouses a different philosophy. Ryan called it more managed state capitalism.

Obama, he said, is trying to pump up the so-called green industry as a means of growing the economy by bringing in loan guarantees, loan subsidies and tax credits for select industries.

"That to me is bad as well," Ryan said.

Asked about the loss of jobs in Wisconsin over a six-month period, Ryan said much of that can be explained by the uncertainty in the economy.

"Uncertainty is killing them," he said of businesses. "The closer they get to this gridlock year, the less they see things coming."

"We're going from a 35% tax rate possibly to 45% in a scope of a year for a successful small business manufacturer in an industrial park in Wisconsin. That's a pretty big jump."

Ryan said he had worked with Democrats in the House to enact a legislation line-item veto. The bill has the support of the president, he said, but its future is uncertain at best in the Senate.

"The president is not the obstacle," Ryan said. "The Senate majority leader (Harry Reid of Nevada) is the obstacle."

Ryan also said he would campaign for Gov. Scott Walker should the governor face a recall election. He also said he would campaign for other Republicans facing a recall in the state.

On the recall election, Ryan said so much attention was being paid to the Walker recall that it was drowning out the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat.

"It will be a sprint in the Senate race," Ryan said.

Ryan said he would not endorse a Senate candidate until the state Republican Party decides whom to back at its state convention.

"It's going to be an interesting Senate race, not having a whole lot of time to captivate the attention of the state," he said.

Ryan did not handicap all of the Senate candidates. But asked to comment on criticism from some conservatives that former Gov. Tommy Thompson was not conservative enough, Ryan disagreed.

"I think Tommy is conservative. He's an activist conservative, meaning Tommy is an ideas guy. Tommy is a guy who is an idea factory. He makes lots of proposals to fix problems and he's not a stick-in-the-mud," Ryan said.