This Man Got to Run for VP by Saying Yes When No One Else Would.
If there's one thing that would make old white people in Florida and elsewhere vote for Obama or at least not vote for Mittens, it would be having Paul Ryan a heartbeat away from Medicare and Social Security and the presidency. Ryan wants to end it all, Student Loans for Education and Womens Health Care Services. The top 1% can rest easy Romney and Ryan are supporters of tax breaks for the wealthy. So this is what it comes down to, a test to see if the normal GOP voters can think their way out of a wet paper bag.
Romney's Choice for VP Confirms It, Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance while going overboard to protect the upper 1%. Vote Democratic to Save Medicare.
Romney's pick for VP is no less qualified than Sarah Palin when McCain chose her. Paul Ryan is a Congressman from Wisconsin with zero foreign policy experience and no private sector work experience. He can see Canadians from his front porch when home in the district.
Paul Ryan's approach shifts the costs of Medicare to seniors -- increasing out-of-pocket costs for Virginia seniors by as much as $5,900 per person. Even Newt Gingrich called it "right-wing social engineering." Mitt Romney is in total support of the Ryan Kill Medicare plan. I would like to canvas Amherst County to find out how many senior republican voters have that extra $5,900.00 to kick in for their health care. Once Ryan and Romney get their foot in the door who knows where the shifting of taxes and expenses to the poor and middle class will end. Both Romney and Ryan are candidates with plans to protect the rich.
Paul Ryan Challenged By Town Hall Constituents Over Previous Praise Of Ayn Rand
Poor People Know How to Cope With Being Broke. They Can Get By on Less, No Problem. The Rich Pay Too Much in Taxes. Mitt and I will Help Them.
JANESVILLE, Wisconsin — That's the area Ryan represents in the Congress and he is most likely well known in those parts. What the reasons are that Romney picked a almost unknown congressman to be his running mate is anybodies guess. Could be Ryan said "Yes, I'll do it" and no one else was willing.
Last month, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) disavowed his one-time political muse, Ayn Rand, because of her “atheist philosophy.” Some of his constituents, however, aren’t buying it.
Ryan praised Rand’s ideas at length during a 2005 gathering in her honor and declared that “the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.”
But in an April interview with National Review, Ryan took a far different tone, telling Bob Costa, “I reject her philosophy.”
At a town hall meeting on Friday, Ryan was pressed by a constituent to explain this about-face. “Mr. Ryan, are you telling us that your political career was founded on the concepts of a rally of hers, but until recently, you never realized Ayn Rand was an outspoken atheist, that she felt altruism was evil, supported abortion, and condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor?” the constituent asked.
Ryan professed no inconsistency in his views, arguing instead that “just because you like someone’s novels doesn’t mean you agree with their entire worldview philosophy.” He called the notion that he supports Rand’s views “a canard,” though still insisted that Atlas Shrugged is “a great book” that he recommends to those in
his office.
CONSTITUENT: My question concerns your current and previous feelings toward the author and philosopher Ayn Rand. [...] Mr. Ryan, are you telling us that your political career was founded on the concepts of a rally of hers, but until recently, you never realized Ayn Rand was an outspoken atheist, that she felt altruism was
evil, supported abortion, and condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor?
RYAN: [...] Just because you like someone’s novels doesn’t mean you agree with their entire worldview philosophy. She has a worldview philosophy which is completely antithetical to mine because she has an atheist philosophy. [...] It’s really kind of a canard, is what I would say.
CONSTITUENT: You spoke as a keynote speaker for Ayn Rand banquets. You were quoted at length about how you loved her. You say you grew up and Ayn Rand taught you who you are and what your values are. I think we’ve learned the question of your honesty.
RYAN: It’s a great book! It’s a great book! Let’s go on to somebody over here, I think we’ve covered it pretty well. By the way, I don’t require it. I have a reading list. Lots of young people ask me what are good books. I give them Alexis de Tocqueville, I take the Founders, Friedman, Hayek, Atlas Shrugged. There are lots of good books worth reading if you want to study freedom, free enterprise, the Founders, economics. There are a lot of good books out there to read, it doesn’t mean that you subscribe to the person’s worldview and philosophy.
That’s really kind of a stretch.
After Previously Praising Her, Paul Ryan Now Disses Ayn Rand: ‘I Reject Her Philosophy’
That's How We Do It in Janesville, Wisconsin and Mitt says the whole USA will operate that way when we are elected.
Rep. Paul Ryan and his on-again, off-again political inspiration, Ayn Rand
In 2005, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue”. The New Republic wrote:
“The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”
Ryan also noted in a 2003 interview with the Weekly Standard, “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”
But today, Ryan is singing a far different tune.
From an interview with National Review’s Bob Costa this week:
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.
It’s understandable why Ryan would back off his former political muse. She described altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor, viewed the feminist movement as “phony,” and called Arabs “almost totally primitive savages.”
Despite Ryan’s newly-professed distaste for Rand, were she alive today, she would likely applaud Ryan for his draconian GOP budget, which cuts food stamps and other programs for the poor, ends Medicare as we know it, gives $3 trillion in tax breaks for corporations and the rich, and raises taxes on the poorest Americans.
Paul Ryan's Budget Targets Poor, Goes Against Religious Values.
Mitt Romney says sign me up for the Ryan budget.
WWJD with this budget? He'd Burn It
Washington this weekend, another group of religious leaders held a small gathering across the street to warn
against the perils of the Republican Party’s fiscal priorities.
Clete Kiley — asserted that the GOP efforts to cut funding from many anti-poverty programs while balancing the budget on the backs of the poorest Americans were not in line with Christian values:
The sky is falling on poor people in this country. The sky is falling. This time it really is. In the past, when we’ve done deficit reduction — and we’ve done it before — we’ve done poverty reduction at the same time.
You can do both together. And every previous attempt there has been a bipartisan agreement to a given, a principle, that poor and low income people are not the ones to make hurt more when you’re making tough decisions. … They don’t bear the brunt of our fiscal irresponsibility because they didn’t cause it. We did not get into fiscal trouble because of poor people. … The poor didn’t cause this. Let’s not make them pay for it.
What we’re saying in the faith community, across the spectrum, is that a nation is judged — our Bible says — by how we treat the poorest and most vulnerable. Period. That’s what God says to us. That’s God’s instruction to us. To be faithful to God, we have to protect poor people.
Wallis and Butler repeatedly asserted that political leaders could not adhere to the teachings of both Rand and the church. “This budget has more to do with the teaching of Ayn Rand than the etchings of Jesus Christ,”
Butler said. “I read [Rand] in high school, and she said, ‘You have to choose me or Jesus,’” Wallis added. “And so I did. She lost.”
Religious leaders have recently spoken out to House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) and House Speaker
John Boehner (R-OH) — both of whom are practicing Catholics — telling them that the cuts in their budget disproportionately target poor Americans and are thus out of line with Christian and Catholic teaching. Early in May, a group of Catholic bishops sent Boehner a letter denouncing the budget cuts. Ryan, meanwhile, has attempted to persuade Catholic bishops that his budget is in line with religious teaching. Kiley was skeptical today, however, saying Ryan handpicked phrases from Catholic teaching in attempts to justify his budget cuts, largely ignoring the majority of Catholic teaching.
And so it came to be that in 2012 a clumsy, foot in mouth most days, Morman and a Ayn Rand follower headed up the republican ticket for President and VP. Their stated intent was to dismantle the social safety net, kill Medicare and shuffle the savings up the line in the form of tax breaks for the rich. The only thing between them and their objective were the votes of the American people. Your life will be affected by the way this story turns out. Give this decision your very best effort. Some of the things you lose you may never have again.
Who the Hell is Ayn Rand?
Ayn Rand, A Modern Day Republican 75 Years Ago
Ayn Rand born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, February 2, 1905 – March 6, 1982 was a Russian novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. She was an inspirational leader for Paul Ryan, American Congressman and Vice Presidential candidate for the republican party.
Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected all forms of faith and religion.
She supported rational and ethical egoism, and rejected ethical altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed all forms of collectivism and statism, instead supporting laissez-faire capitalism, which she believed was the only social system that protected individual rights. She promoted
romantic realism in art. She was sharply critical of the philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her besides Aristotle.
Rands ideas form the basis for todays repuiblican thought and ideals.
Objectivism is a philosophy created by Russian philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivism's central tenets are that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process
of concept formation and inductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (or rational self-interest), that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez faire capitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally.
Rand originally expressed her philosophical ideas in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and other works. She further elaborated on them in her periodicals The Objectivist Newsletter, The Objectivist, and The Ayn Rand Letter, and in non-fiction books such as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and The Virtue of
Selfishness.
Today Paul Ryan carries on the Ayn Rand legacy and spreads its influence by having all his congressional employees read her works. It is the new face of the GOP? With this background is it any wonder that Ryan would push Granny off the cliff?
Romney was Losing so he reached out to Paul Ryan.
This is One of the Best Poses I've Ever Done
Was it much of a giveaway when Romney announced last night he would be announcing his choice in Norfolk with the USS Wisconsin in the background? Did anyone think he might pick Scott Walker or Ron Johnson? As Fox warned when they confirmed the pick at 4AM this morning (minutes before that Romney VP app went off), "the announcement comes as some polls, including a recent Fox News survey, show the Republican presidential candidate losing some ground to President Obama." Will Ryan be able to deliver Wisconsin? Will Biden be able to handle him in a debate? What happens in the WI-01 congressional race? Will sales of Ayn Rand's adolescent dystopian books zoom into the stratosphere?
Dick Cheney says he worships the ground that Paul Ryan walks on-- his words -- and Paul Ryan says he feels the same way about Ayn Rand, a self-proclaimed anti-Christ. Ryan is Wall Street's dream candidate for a complete takeover of America. By forcing him down Romney's throat today-- even if it's going to turn out to be as failed a bid as it now looks-- Ryan will be set up as the GOP presidential nominee for 2016. The Big Business interests and Tea Party financiers who Ryan represents are getting exactly what they
want... even if they have to sit through four more years of an ineffective neither-fish-nor-fowl Obama administration. Many GOP propagandists were beating the drum on Ryan all week-- especially since Romney's approval numbers are in the toilet nationally. But Republican columnist David Frum was swimming against the current in his own party-- even as Romney was hinting that Ryan was his man. Frum understands that the people who pushed Ryan on Romney don't like Romney, don't respect Romney and might not even care if he loses... as long as they're setting Ryan up as the next in line.
The clamor you are hearing for Paul Ryan for VP is not about helping the Romney candidacy. It's about controlling the Romney campaign-- and ultimately the Romney presidency. It's about forcing a platform on Romney, and then dictating the agenda for that presidency's first year. The platform happens to be suicidal,
and the agenda impossible, but that does not matter to the Ryan advocates. They take the old Tammany Hall point of view: "Better to lose an agenda than lose control of the party."
In that sense, the Ryan proposal is a test of Romney's leadership. If he accedes, it's a big surrender of control-- and a surrender to many of those who most opposed (and who inwardly continue to dislike) his nomination.
John Nichols was, predictably, far more insightful into just what Paul Ryan is, than Frum. Like many in Wisconsin who have watched him most closely, Nichols understands that, at his core, Ryan is just a "hyper-ambitious political careerist-- who has spent his entire adult life as a Congressional aide, think-tank hanger
-on and House member" who wants to keep on climbing until he's America's real life John Galt. He knows he could control a doddering fool of a puffed up CEO type like Romney as easily and thoroughly as Cheney controlled Bush. But there's a problem. As Nichols writes, "Vice presidential nominees are supposed to help tickets, not hurt them."
Romney clearly needs help. Just back from a disastrous trip to Europe and the Middle East, mired in controversies about the “vulture capitalism” he practiced at Bain Capital and his refusal to release tax returns that his dad-- former Michigan governor and 1968 Republican presidential contender George Romney-- said
contenders for the Oval Office had a responsibility to share with the voters, Romney could use a boost.
But Ryan would be a burden, not a booster, for a Romney-led ticket.
Like Romney, Ryan is a son of privilege who has little real-world experience or understanding. He presents well on Sunday morning talk shows and in the rarified confines of Washington think tanks and dinners with his constituents—the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street-- but his record in Congress and the policies he now
promotes are political albatrosses.
Some Republicans, perhaps even Romney, do not get this.
But the Obama campaign recognized, correctly, that Ryan’s positioning of himself as the point man on behalf of an austerity that would remake America as a dramatically weaker and more dysfunctional country makes him the most vulnerable of prominent Republicans.
Ryan scares people who live outside the “bubble” of a modern conservative movement that thinks the wealthiest country in the world is “broke” and that Ayn Rand is a literary and economic seer.
The House Budget Committee chairman imagines himself as a high priest speaking unfortunate truths about debts and deficits, the unforgiving foe of social spending who would gladly sacrifice Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the altar of debt reduction. Ryan has branded himself well within Republican circles, so well that he has parlayed himself into contention for the vice presidential nod. To get that nomination, however, Ryan must count on the prospect that the party that takes as its symbol the memory-rich elephant will suddenly suffer a spell of forgetfulness. That’s because the Republican congressman from Wisconsin, for all his bluster, is anything but a consistent advocate for fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets. He is, in fact, a hypocrite.
Or, to be more precise, a hypocritical big spender-- at least when Wall Street, the insurance industry and the military-industrial complex call.
Ryan has been a steady voter for unwise bailouts of big banks, unfunded mandates and unnecessary wars. Few members of Congress have run up such very big tabs while doing so little to figure out how to pay the piper.
How has Ryan gotten away with his fool-most-of-the-people-most-of-the-time politics?
For the most part, he has until recently flown under the radar-- dazzling fellow Republicans with fiscal fancy footwork, while dancing around weak Democratic opposition in his home district.
Nichols, without slapping around the DCCC, also notes that Ryan has, until now, never had a legitimate reelection contest. What he's polite enough not to say is that the DCCC had no will to go after Paul Ryan.
They-- or at least DCCC Chair "ex" -Blue Dog/ex-Center Aisle founder Steve Israel-- have told their big donors not to contribute to Ryan's progressive opponent, Rob Zerban. The DCCC has a long and shameful history of never opposing Paul Ryan and, in fact, of undermining Democrats in southeastern Wisconsin who wanted to defeat him in this swing district that Obama won neatly, 51-48%, and that sends plenty of local Democrats to Madison.
As we've been explaining for at least the last 5 years, there is no politician anywhere in the country more dangerous to American working families than Paul Ryan. If the DCCC had cared anything about protecting America-- or could even discern the nature of the existential danger Ryan poses-- defeating him would have been
Priority #1 for them. Instead, Israel was committed to giving him yet another free pass. Blue America is a small independent PAC. Until today there were very few who wanted to work to defeat Paul Ryan. Will he run for reelection to Congress and for Vice President simultaneously, the way Lieberman did in 2000? I'm guessing we'll know pretty fast. We've been working to help Rob Zerban since he took the courageous step to go up against Goliath-- and we're doing our own independent work to elect him as well. You can help either or both efforts at the StopPaulRyan ActBlue page. Please do it now, before it's too late. (I know it sounds dramatic... but I'm speaking from my heart. This is the guy we need to defeat... for VP, for Congress, for 2016, for Mom, Apple Pie, Truth and the American Way...
Paul Ryan's Budget Proposal 3 Times Worse Than Automatic Cuts He Called Crippling
This is how you hold a basketball, Obama doesn't know that. I sleep on a cot in my Congressional office to save money. I only make $170,000 a year.
Remember the Simpson-Bowles Debt Commission? It was a special congressional panel established by President Obama as part of a debt ceiling deal with Congress to write a bi-partisan policy on fiscal responsibility and debt reform. It consisted of 18 members including six congressional republicans and six democrats.
We already know there's been plenty of criticism from both sides of the aisle about the commission's final report and we also know all six republicans chosen for the panel were Norquist pledge signers. The "Norquisters" guaranteed the commission would fail because it needed a super majority - 14 votes - to pass, and there was no way those six republicans would allow any balanced debt solutions to include revenue increases.
Among the Norquister six on the debt commission was our own failed Congressman Paul Ryan.
More importantly, now that the debt commission failed, was the default mechanism called a sequester Congress agreed to with the President as part of the debt ceiling deal. The sequester was meant to be a fail safe policy of across-the-board automatic cuts that panel members were supposed to fear enough, that they would be forced
to reach some sort of a bi-partisan balanced solution to cut and control future deficits. Paul Ryan knew of all this well in advance.
Failing to reach the minimum 14 votes needed to pass - the sequester kicked in. Again, Congress agreed to this.
But a few months ago, Ryan issued a complaint of sorts, claiming that the automatic cuts that he allowed to kick in, would have a crippling effect on our military. He wrote ...
Paul Ryan House Excerpt:
...we established a Joint Select Committee in Congress tasked with producing at least $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction. This "supercommittee" was backstopped by an automatic, across-the-board spending cut known as a sequester. This sequester was never intended to be policy. It was meant to be something both
parties wished to avoid, in order to motivate members of the supercommittee to work together. Despite a good-faith effort to avoid the sequester, the supercommittee's negotiations broke down over fundamental differences in visions for our nation's future.
Again, most of the Democrats on the committee voted to approve the final draft. For good or bad, they feared the cold cuts the sequester would bring. Ryan however did not.
The sequester was never meant to be an empty gesture or something that would be pulled away if they merely negotiated in good faith but still failed, as Ryan now implies. That would mean it would have no bite, no power and that scenario was not part of the debt deal agreement and Ryan knows it. When Paul Ryan voted "no" on the debt commission, he not only agreed to honor the $1.2 trillion automatic reductions in defense and domestic programs, but he also implied that the automatic cuts he now suddenly calls "crippling" were not enough incentive to coerce him to find common ground with others on the panel. He failed miserably not only in leadership, but in a teamwork environment as well.
To deny responsibility when the panel failed to reach consensus or blame it on Obama is completely ludicrous.
Congressman Ryan gave up on being part of the solution and gambled away thousands of American jobs when he folded on the debt commission.
But now there's a new report from the Wisconsin Budget Project that looks into the effects Ryan's own budget would have on the state of Wisconsin if passed into law.
Wisconsin Budget Project Excerpt:
The funding cuts to states, counties, and cities under the Ryan budget proposal would far exceed the automatic cuts scheduled to begin in January, often referred to by the term “sequestration.” In 2014, the Ryan budget cuts would be three times as deep as those inflicted by sequestration. In later years, the difference would be
even larger, as the sequestration cuts diminish but the Ryan cuts remain just as deep.
It's true. The automatic cuts Ryan settled for in opposition of the debt commission, but now calls "crippling," are nowhere near as devastating to the state or country as his own budget proposal is, particularly in the long-term.
We know Paul Ryan has a serious pre-existing ideological condition making him unfit to be in Congress, let alone on any committee or panel that requires the maturity and knowledge to reach common ground. He proved this on the debt commission and proves it again with his toxic politicking to cover his tracks.
There is no substitute for facts.
The Official Paul Ryan "Freeloder" Office Cot
Paul was super excited to say yes to Romney and run for Vice President when he found out the VP gets a house to live in. If he loses that bid and has to continue living in a Congressional office he is interested in a small washer and dryer at a reasonable price, free would be the better deal.
Mitt Romney praised House GOP Budget Chairman Paul Ryan for the GOP’s new budget plan, calling it “a bold step” towards “fiscal sanity.” The Ryan plan would turn Medicare into a voucher program, in which seniors would be left with a voucher that they could use to buy private insurance. Ryan claims that traditional Medicare would remain an option for seniors, but in reality, private plans would cherry pick healthy enrollees, driving up
costs for the older and less healthy people with Medicare.
Romney: Romney would also turn Medicare into a voucher program. Similar proposals would force seniors to pay $6,350 more in out-of-pocket expenses each year. And because he wants to repeal the health care law, he would increase payments to insurance companies by $100 billion, and deplete the Medicare trust fund by 2016. Like Ryan, Romney claims that traditional Medicare would remain an option for seniors—but we know the reality is his plan would drive up costs for those on the program.
Mitt is pictured here just as he reaches the most rousing part of his "Screw The Poor, Let Them Die" speech which he has delivered for right wing conservative born again republican audiences across America. It would bring tears to your eyes if you could just hear a room full of GOP voters chanting "Screw The Poor" or "Let Them Die". Some members of the Tea Party pass out from excitement, others throw their three cornered hats into the air and speak in tongues.
Here's the video of Mitts "Let the Poor Die" speech. It was delivered after he had won the nomination. In A Secret Video Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks Of Obama Voters: Irresponsible, Dependent, Freeloaders. Can't tell you who shot the video but rest assured the Obama campaign has been given the video.
Ryan Pick Affirms GOP As Your Banker's Party
Putting another millionaire on the GOP ticket through Mitt Romney's selection of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan does nothing to expand its base, which is good news for Pres. Barack Obama and Democratic voters.
By the end of the campaign - - or maybe by the end of next week - - Democrats will have indelibly defined Paul Ryan as the champion of the failed Medicare voucher proposal that would have enriched private insurers while stripping middle-class seniors of their resources.
And the drafter of a proposed Federal budget that would have rewarded upper-income filers with more breaks than those conferred on wage-earners and the working poor.
Wall Street will love Romney's pick, while Main Street, dependent on worker spending, will not.
But give Republicans credit. Their party is now solidly the party of corporate dominance, individual wealth preservation, greed and exclusion. It's all out in the open now.
Republicans are the party of the 1%, leaving Democrats to more easily persuade the other 99%.
The only possible way a party with such narrow and self-interested priorities as represented by Romney/Ryan could win a national election is through voter suppression laws aimed at blocking minorities, students and seniors from unfettered voting - - an attempt enjoined in Wisconsin because the so-called Voter ID law approved by the Scott Walker-controlled legislature blatantly conflicts with voting procedures spelled out in the state constitution.
This voter suppression trick is alive and well and a standard practice in the rest of the states of the good old USA. In every state republicans are attempting to steal voting rights from the poor and old.
This used to be a cartoon. Now it is standard operating mode for the GOP.
Proper Voting can end all the sickness and make our country better.
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