Capping a month of monumental failure, international gaffes, and plunging polls, Mitt Romney did precisely what the far-right fringe of the Republican Party demanded of him. He chose, Paul Ryan, a VP running mate straight from the bowels of the Tea Party, whose well-documented agenda of gifting financial benefits to the wealthy and sending the bill to the poor and middle class is the perfect complement to Romney Hood. Congratulations Governor.
Obama for America Campaign Manager Jim Messina released the following statement in response to Mitt Romney picking Congressman Paul Ryan to be his presumptive nominee for vice president:
“In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy. The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors. As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.”
ThinkProgress compiled 12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan (click link for details).
- Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand.
- Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cuts them for millionaires.
- Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system.
- Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
- Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years.
- Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
- Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil.
- Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
- Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”
- Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.”
- Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget.
- Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.
And as a symbolic harbinger of things to come, in the big stage-managed photo-op of Romney announcing his bachlorette, Romney introduced Ryan as “the next president of the United States.”
Let the games begin…..
I believe any chance of Romney winning Florida or Pennsylvania just got a lot harder. And if seniors and soon to be seniors are paying attention, there may be other states in play as well.
Romney has endorsed the Ryan budget. If he implements it, if elected, folks like me at age 54 and under are gonna get the short end of the stick. And even though those that are 55 and older won’t have their medicare benefits affected, yet, seniors at the lower end of the income scale that receive medicaid certainly will lose those benefits (at least have them reduced) if Romney were to implement the Ryan budget plan.
I can’t see the upside to picking Ryan other than to get the conservative base out. Doing so in August seems a bit early and may even signal a desperation inside the Romney campaign.
Let the games begin, indeed.