What's the deal with GOP "deficit hawk" Paul Ryan?

Wisconsin Republican Cong. Paul Ryan makes a lot of noise about deficits.  Of course, his actual record is of voting to increase deficits with tax cuts and big ticket unfunded schemes like...uh...the war in Iraq and Bush 2's prescription drug bill that was deliberately unhinged from any additional revenue source.

Ryan is known for having his staff read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, a sort of Bible for those obsessed with the notion that taxation - and especially progressive taxation - is inherently evil (literally "morally evil" & I'm not kidding) and that we should essentially eliminate the government.  The GOP congress has chosen Ryan as their Big Gun on the budget, so it's useful to remind folks of just what a fraud this fellow happens to be.  Steve Benen recently had a good background piece on Ryan as the face of the GOP cutback agenda, with lots of additional links if you want to dig deeper into the Ryan deep hole - HERE. 
Also, if you missed it, check out our previous posting of Jon Chait's piece on Ryan, HERE.