Roderick Fitts, you’re absolutely right, I should have been more specific. I meant to write that Rand didn’t see a role for government in the economic sphere whereas Ryan still wants the government to be involved in Medicare and Social Security, if only in a limited way.

The author said that: “He [representative Ryan] still sees a role for government which is certainly not what Ayn Rand favored.”

But Rand did a role for the government.

“If physical force is to be barred from social relationships, men need an institution charged with the task of protecting their rights under an objective code of rules.

This is the task of a government—of a proper government—its basic task, its only moral justification and the reason why men do need a government.”
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/government.html

The more important question, in terms of endorsing someone, is this: What are his fundamental principles? That means asking a lot of probing questions. Examples are:

- Is the man a theist and therefore a mystic and an altruist? A quick internet search suggests he is a theist, but possibly he is the deist type who might be able to disconnect his theism from his politics, to some extent.

- More specifically, does he really support a free market? If so, then — as a test — what are his positions on open immigration (a hallmark of capitalism), drug laws (a sign of statism), and abortion (the right to control one’s own body)? The answers should help us grasp his understanding of the principle of individual rights and its foundation.