HOW FAR TO THE RIGHT IS HE?
“We are at a moment, where if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged, America’s best century will be considered our past century. This is a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency.” (Paul Ryan’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, 2011)
- embraces the extreme capitalist philosophy of Ayn Rand that idealizes unchecked capitalism as the source of wealth for all and justifies the privilege of the wealthy and demonizes not only the slothful, undeserving poor but the lackluster middle-classes.
- voted against the Simpson-Bowles debt reduction plan and has proposed no alternative
- does not address the deficit or the debt for 22 years, adding trillions of dollars to the debt because of further tax cuts for the so called job producers.
- adheres to the Grover Norquist pledge that NO additional taxes can be levied despite our historically low current rates
- requires that taxes be raised on the middle class, to cut them deeply for billion and millionaires.
- wants to end Medicare as we know it in the next 10 years and replace it with a voucher system
- claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.” and thatRomneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.”
- intends to cut Medicaid which predominately benefits poor children and seniors by 1/3 in the next 10 years
- plans to reopen the prescription donut hole and raises the co-pay for preventative treatment for seniors
- thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.” and favors embracing personal responsibility by privatizing part of the trust fund with investment in the stock market without any safeguards in case of a stock market collapse
- has a budget that would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years.
- wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1.5 million students.
- supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil andhas ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
- accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget.
- co-sponsored a “fetal personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure, and opposes funding for contraception.
- in 13 years in Congress, with six of them in leadership positions, he has only two bills bearing his name that passed into law. one naming a post office and the other changing the way arrows (as in bows and arrows) are hit with an excise tax. He has sponsored or co-sponsored 971 bills- and only 2 became law.
- has no executive or foreign policy experience so what he brings to the ticket is economic positions that Romney will now have to answer for.
- benefited directly from the social safety net as the recipient of social security payments after his father’s death, and loans/grants that funded his college education
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/12/paul-ryan-bills_n_1769816.html
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/romney-ryan-2012-herman-eddie-munster-ticke
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/um-paul-ryanabout-hammock
Murph
I was talking to a friend online this morning about Ryan and his SS and grants for college after his dad died and she brought a really good point I don’t think I have heard anyone else bring up.
“When reading where Ryan benefitted from SS benefits when his father passed it sickened me. I think people with a lot of money should not rely on that. I remember when it was reported that Johnny Carson filed for SS literally made me sick. They don’t need it, leave it in the kitty for those who do. Now Ryan wants to take that away from poor kids who lose their father. SICK”
She has a really good point and one that will hit home to younger families in the event of the death of the breadwinner. He literally wants to take food and shelter out of the mouth and hands of young kids. Shame……
Sue….When Social Security was originally proposed it was far different than the annuity for all that it quickly became.
Franklin Roosevelt put together the Economic Security Commission composed of
Frances Perkins
Secretary of Labor
Chair of CES
Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Secretary of the Treasury
Homer Cummings
Attorney General
Henry Wallace
Secretary of Agriculture
Harry Hopkins
Administrator of FERA
Professor Edwin Witte
Executive Staff Director
Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); unknown person in shadow; Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell (D-MI); the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins; Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD).
Sue….had a “burp in the force” and a partial of this comment posted….sorry. Here it is.
When Social Security was originally proposed it was far different than the annuity for all that it quickly became.
Franklin Roosevelt put together the Commission on Economic Security.
Frances Perkins
Secretary of Labor
Chair of CES
Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Secretary of the Treasury
Homer Cummings
Attorney General
Henry Wallace
Secretary of Agriculture
Harry Hopkins
Administrator of FERA
Professor Edwin Witte
Executive Staff Director
Their charge from FDR was: “. . . I am looking for a sound means which I can recommend to provide at once security against several of the great disturbing factors in life–especially those which relate to unemployment and old age.”
In June of 1934, 50 percent of those 65 or older were living in poverty. In addition there was no support for children in families that lost their wage earner, and for the disabled.
Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell (D-MI); Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD) were the primary movers of the legislation in the House.
Although its reach was very limited (initially minorities, women, farmers, domestic workers, part time employees were all excluded) it was expanded to its present coverage over the remainder of the Roosevelt administration and into the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.
What was quickly lost was the idea that the program was Social Security INSURANCE, not a Social Security ANNUITY. As imagined by the Commission, payments into the trust fund would be small, provided by everyone who might be eligible for it, and ONLY be provided to those who qualified for it- i.e. those who needed it.
Bottom line for me is this:
a) The level of payroll taxable income needs to be raised from $109,000 to $200,000.
b) Means testing should be applied to those applying for it.
From what I have read, that would extend the program almost indefinitely.
Mitt Romney’s Buckeye brushback: Will Paul Ryan lose Ohio for the GOP?
A specter is haunting Ohio: the specter of John W. Bricker.
Sixty-eight years ago, the Republican presidential nominee picked Bricker, the Ohio Governor and future Senator, as his running-mate. The choice is the likely reason why Thomas E. Dewey defeated Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Buckeye State by 12,000 votes–a margin of 0.37 percent.
As I traveled through central Ohio last week–before Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan for his ticket–I heard a constant refrain that Rob Portman, the Republican senator from Ohio, could provide Romney with the margin of victory in the state in November.
http://news.yahoo.com/mitt-romney%E2%80%99s-buckeye-brushback–will-paul-ryan-lose-ohio-for-the-gop-.html
WoW…..Bricker….forgot all about him. SO, are you proposing that Ryan might carry Wi. and that the GOP was assuming they had Ohio? My guess is “no”.
No is correct. I just thought the mention of Bricker and Dewey was an interesting political tid bit.
I just don’t understand how Walker won the recall in WI. I guess it’s big money, as usual. I am hoping that Romney/Ryan lose big time in WI. I guess we’ll know soon enough.
I also think Obama has Ohio sewed up. Ohio is a weird state in some ways. A lot of fundamentalist Christians, but also a lot of working class people and college students. I think Ohio has become just a little bit bluer in the last 4 or 5 years. I know that Ryan’s opposition to helping farmers will not be well received. There are a whole bunch of farms in Ohio.
KT…you would think that the makeup of the electorate in Ohio would pretty much make the state a solid Obama state but I worry about the power of propaganda on the uninformed, the misinformed and the malinformed. And I also worry that our focus will be too tight on the Presidency and the Congress will go solid red (not to mention state governments).
Southwestern Ohio is a huge stronghold for the right. Lots of religion and strict conservatism. I do think that a majority of conservatives there mistake today’s GOP for a conservative party. Today’s GOP, IMO is a radical right wing organization, that constantly puts party before country.
KT…I do not know if I have shared this with you before, but I refer to myself as am Eisenhower Republican (which is so in many areas and not true in others but it captures some of my political profile). It is for that reason that I regard your assessment as absolutely true.
Excellent list.
“in 13 years in Congress, with six of them in leadership positions, he has only two bills bearing his name that passed into law. one naming a post office and the other changing the way arrows (as in bows and arrows) are hit with an excise tax. He has sponsored or co-sponsored 971 bills- and only 2 became law.”
It seems he was quiet and at least pretended to be moderate for many years in Congress. Wisconsin re-elected him easily and Opensecrets shows democrats hardly challenged him until the last couple elections. There’s a reason-after 10 years, Ryan rated a larger staff and had more power-and then he made his move far right.
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/elections.php?cycle=Career&cid=n00004357&type=I
I’m not sure Wisconsin saw it coming. Ryan is an excellent fundraiser and has $5 million in cash before being picked.
Also…”benefited directly from the social safety net as the recipient of social security payments after his father’s death, and loans/grants that funded his college education”
That’s making the rounds but the myth that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps is being repeated and I’m sure it’s wrong. It’s too “feel good”, too much like propaganda I think.
Here’s a little blog post I ran across discussing the family’s construction business that made a killing off government contracts. (Although Ryan apparently married into money as well)
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/08/paul-ryans-family-is-rich-because-of.html
“I can see it now, a promo for a TV movie: a shot of Paul Ryan standing atop a mountain with a deer flung across his back dissolves into footage of him in a college dorm room, enraptured by Atlas Shrugged while through the window unruly women’s rights protesters burn bras. We see a young Ryan working at McDonald’s as a teenager, then cut to him running up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, sweat dripping from his brow. The Star-Spangled Banner crescendos as he reaches the apex. Text flashes across the screen: Paul Ryan, Self-Made Man.”
http://prospect.org/article/paul-ryans-self-made-myth
And that’s how they’re playing it. Completely wrong but the NYT and WaPo did similar pieces.
I believe this is also the way the Obama campaign will hit back, exposing the myths.
Older and Wiser…. Both men at the top of the ticket are men of myth…. You have outline Paul Ryan’s well. Mitt’s is that of the hard working, afraid of being fired, made it on his own, young entrepreneur who stood in rapt admiration of his Dad and has walked in his footsteps with the Book of Mormon to guide him is moral decision making.
He was a spoiled rich kid who had all of the advantages that came with living in a family with wealth and power who went to the best schools on his Dad’s dime, had a cushy missionary experience which also got him out of the draft (while protesting in support of the Vietnam War), went to work at a top level consulting firm and then was commissioned to found an investment company without any risk to himself at all.
It is all image making and pr and it is mostly a lie.
Exactly Murph!
Good stuff MTS,
I’m sending to the Repub members of my family as well as the mentally stable members. I will also ask that they post on their FB accounts as Sue did.
More on gmail.
Later,
Bourne
High compliment. Thank you. Doncha luv the Munsters?
I do love the Munsters! I thought I was the only one who’s never left my childhood.
Know what? I really believe these two gentlemen will do all our work for us between now and November 6. There are so many places to punch holes in most everything they say.
The overkill comments from Fox and Rush pretty much seal the deal, but the President’s campaign staff needs to keep the tone civil and not get too gloaty (which I have a tendency to do). It’s hard not to be enthusiastic but words can always backfire.
Are you posting this elsewhere?
BTW, I watched Elliot Spitzer last night. One of his guests was the Catholic nun (cannot remember her name) who’s become very vocal and is leading a charge against much policy from outside the church…very impressive woman. Spitzer asked her about Ryan’s seeming disconnect from his Catholic upbringing and she commented much as I saw in AdLib’s response to you. His other guest was Bill Press, also extremely smart man.
Remind me when you have time what the sister’s name is.
Bourne
Bourne
My sister loved them too in fact every few years she goes as Lily Munster for Halloween. She is a great seamstress and a hair and makeup stylist so she made a very realistic costume and her makeup and her hair are eerily similar to Lily. Her husband is real tall and he goes as Herman. Too cute they are 🙂
I preferred the Adams Family but Pugsley was clear not the workout fiend Paul is.
The nun who is making the rounds is Simone Campbell who I have met and I know a couple of others in their leadership.
Your admonition that the Dems need to be careful that they do not become overconfident and overplay their hands is very appropriate. I heard too much of the “Ryan is the best VP offering WE Democrats could have hoped for.” meme.
Murp
thanks for this. I supplied it to a friend of mine who is always on FB so she can post. She lives in NV and has a lot of republican friends she “converses” with, we all know how that goes. I also liked it on FB.
Ryan really is bad for the campaign. I am not sure what was in those peoples’ heads when they chose him. Portman or even dull guy from Minnesota would have been better for the Romney campaign. This guy has very little experience except in government.
Hi Sue
Hope things are well with you. I haven’t visited the planet very much this month; maybe Friday.
Bourne
Hey Bourne
I am just back on PP today. I have been here a bit but last week and up to today was all about moving into our new house and unpacking. My grandson is coming tomorrow and I wanted to get his room all ready. In the process, the rest of the house is almost totally in order now too.
Hi Sue
Good to hear from you. Congrats on your new house. Where did you buy?
Having packed and unpacked half my lifetime, I send my sympathies to you. It is a horeendous job but so well worth it when you’re finally in and settled and life becomes sane again.
Still want to meet you and CL.
Enjoy your visit with your grandson.
Bourne
Still in Benicia. We lucked into a Fannie Mae foreclosure that was selling for half it’s price in 2008. It is a townhome with almost 1500 sq ft. We really wanted to stay in Benicia but were looking in Vallejo too. This came up we put in an offer and within a week it was accepted. We had bid on other homes and did not get them but I know now this home was waiting for us to find it. Actually we had looked through the windows a couple months ago but when we looked it up online it had been withdrawn from the market so we would have tried to buy it then too.
Hi Sue
I’m happy that you were able to buy the home you wanted. I don’t know if tha’s kismet or intervention from a higher authority, but however it happened, enjoy it. I only consider those possibilities if things go as I want them to – I have dozens of reasons to choose from in my Whining and Complaining file when they don’t.
Have you lived in a townhouse before? I enjoyed my experience. There were 20 in the complex. The grounds were lovely; They were in a residential area on Winding Way in Carmichael near Anerican River College and, most important, extremely well- soundproofed.
Hope you finish your unpacking soon.
Take care.
Bourne
Bourne
I pointed out to my husband last night that these were built well. We hear very little and they built the units so stairs are to stairs. No upstairs or downstairs areas are true common walls. I thought it was a brilliant design. Our bedrooms are on our neighbor’s stair wall and vice versa for our neighbors on the left. Never seen that done but it was a brilliant architectural design.
I posted this elsewhere and think it might have been the reasoning:
Romney was correct when he said Ryans was the Presidential Nominee
Both internal and external polls are indicating that Romney will not be able to cobble together a coalition to defeat Obama.
SO a radical choice who can actual speak, is well informed, and has the confidence of the right MIGHT be a game changer.
And if not, then that voice WILL be a better representative of the agenda the Right wants to put into place.
Ryan will also be the point of the spear emphasizing the importance of turn the Senate Red and keeping the House Red no matter what.
Further it pushes Ryan forward as the real GOP national leader. Romney knows this which is why I think he declared that Ryan would be the next President of the United States.
I REGARD MOST OF THIS AS UNLIKELY BUT I THINK THAT WAS THE RATIONALE.
MTS
Just saw ths. There is one thing in this that may be very likely and that is that Ryan’s association with Romney could very well end any hope he might have for the highest office at some future time. I’ve long believed that the greatest risk of sitting in the 2nd seat on a losing team carries a huge pricetag. American voters are a strange breed. By the time he might consider it, we will hopefully have removed the junk food from the menu.
His unlikability rating pretty closely matches Darrell Issa (no one could possibly exceed it).
Later,
Bourne