On her show Tuesday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow disputed the idea that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was fiscally conservative.

Maddow noted that Ryan — Mitt Romney’s new running mate — had “voted for all of the things in the George W. Bush era that cost a lot of money and were not paid for at all.”

“Whether you are delighted or terrified by the prospect that Paul Ryan is the new face of the Republican Party, it is important to get straight that he is not a fiscal conservative,” she continued. “What Paul Ryan is, is a follower of this person, Ayn Rand.”

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Ryan has said he became involved in public service because of Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, which he reportedly makes all his interns read. But he has insisted his admiration for Rand was just an “urban legend” and that he doesn’t embrace her philosophy.

“Dude, it’s not an urban legend if that’s you on tape saying it for years, repeatedly and with feeling,” Maddow joked.

“In Ayn Rand’s novel, she leads her readers to see the wealthiest people as heroes, heroes that must be protected,” she explained, claiming Ryan’s controversial budget plan was consistent with Rand’s philosophy. “The rich are heroes and everybody else is a taker. The more the rich have, the better. The better for everyone. That is not fiscal conservatism either. It is something else.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

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