(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)



It will cost $15 to ask Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) a question in person during the August congressional recess. The House Budget Committee chairman isn’t holding any face-to-face open-to-the-public town hall meetings during the recess, but like several of his colleagues he will speak only for residents willing to open their wallets. Ryan, who took substantial criticism from his southeast Wisconsin constituents in April after he introduced the Republicans’ budget proposal, isn’t the only member of congress whose August recess town hall-style meetings are strictly pay-per-view.

Ryan's spokesman defended his boss, saying that the decision had nothing to do with his April shellacking and that he wasn't responsible for charging the $15 fee.

Seifert added that Ryan has nothing to do with the Whitnall Park Rotary Club’s decision to charge $15 admission – a fee that goes to pay for the catered lunch of meat and potatoes the group will provide, club president Kent Bieganski told POLITICO. “It’s not something our office can control,” Seifert said.

It would be one thing to make that argument if Ryan were also hosting town halls that were open to the public, but he's not. Effectively, what he's doing is outsourcing crowd control to third party groups in order to get a friendlier audience. Ryan isn't alone, by the way. Other Republicans are joining in the outsourcing trend, including Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) and Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN).

It's hard to blame them, though. If you'd just spent the last seven months trying to end Medicare, causing the first debt downgrade in American history, and failing to pass a single piece of jobs legislation, would you want to face the public?

[For more discussion, see blue aardvark's diary. - Barbara Morrill]