In 2009, Ryan said, ``What's unique about what's happening today in government, in the world, in America, is that it's as if we're living in an Ayn Rand novel right now. I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of capitalism is under assault.'' In April 2012, after receiving criticism from Georgetown University faculty members on _his_ budget plan, Ryan rejected Rand's philosophy as an atheistic one, saying it ``reduces human interactions down to mere contracts''. <sep>, Pronoun: his