Romney Picks Paul Ryan as VP Choice

Ryan of Wisconsin is considered a rising GOP star and the Republican Party's leader on fiscal and budgetary issues.

The chairman of the House Budget Committee was first elected to Congress at age 28, and later helped launch the party's "Young Guns" program to recruit candidates in districts where Republicans lost.

Now 42, Ryan is the architect of the House GOP's budget proposal, which Democrats compared to an attack on the poor, but Republicans say is intended to save Medicare and rein in spending.

The chairman of the House Budget Committee was announced as the running mate for presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

"It's [Romney's] decision months from now, not mine. So why spend my time thinking about it? If this bridge ever comes that I should cross it, then I'll think about it then. It's not the time to think about it," he told The Wall Street Journal in April.

A native of Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan earned a degree in political science and economics from Miami University in Ohio in 1992. He was raised as a Catholic, and worked at a family construction company before getting into politics. He's known to be an avid hunter and a fitness fanatic.

In the House, Ryan is also a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee.

He has frequently pushed the Republicans' "class warfare" line against President Barack Obama and is a major critic of his signature health reform law.