Ryan thinks feeding school kids empties their soul, and other mindless cruelties.

Paul Ryan is running on empty "false premises." He's got nothing else, so instead of trying to defend his agenda, he created straw man targets to shoot at.

Ryan's sparsely attended CPAC speech had 3 false premises. Red meat to stir up the small crowd, who by the way didn't applaud or appear to believe him. Can we say it? Ryan is over the top.



False Premise #1: Freedom not to Work! Ryan is still using the already debunked "people don't have to work" lie. People might pursue their own business plans, work parttime or take care of their kids...but not working? Is Ryan clueless? Of course not. He's lying.

False Premise #2: The Left Offers a Full Stomach but an Empty Soul: We're talking about free hot lunch for kids at school, living at or under the poverty line. Two years ago, my elementary and middle school sons had empty souls. Funny thing, we didn't guilt trip them about lunch. We can thank Ryan for telling us about the kind of people that still work under Scott Walker. Just a ridiculous story when you think about it. It starts off with "Once..."

RYAN: The Left is making a big mistake here. What they're offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul ... You know, this reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson. She serves in the cabinet of my buddy Gov. Scott Walker. She once met a young boy from a very poor family. And every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise he didn't want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch. One in a brown paper bag, just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the Left does not understand.

Ryan might want to give the kids parents a hike in the minimum wage.

UPDATE: The story above is even another Ryan lie, as reported by Daily Kos:

It turns out, that touching story is actually from a book about a kid in New York City in the 1980s, and the lunches he was getting for free were not from the government, they were from an ad sales rep who befriended him ... the Miss Laura and now-adult Maurice of the story are advocates on child hunger, and let's just say they are not out campaigning against free school lunches. No, they're partnering with No Kid Hungry on a mission that includes "connect[ing] kids in need to effective nutrition programs like school breakfast and summer meals."

Ryan posted a notice on Facebook saying, “I regret failing to verify the original source of the story.” But this comment nailed Ryan: Sherry Edwardson: “You feel that way yourself Ryan or you wouldn't have repeated it. Quit passing the buck!”

False Premise #3: People just want a life of Comfort: No one ever said that. Sadly, he sincerely believes this. He's obsessed with keeping the poor from hammocks and comfort.

National Review Online praised his argument with the headline, "Paul Ryan's Moving Story That Explains the Difference Between Hard Work and Dependency." On Fox's Happening Now, correspondent Carl Cameron characterized Ryan's speech as taking a "middle-of-the-road tone." Ryan's comments fit in well with conservative media's history of shaming the poor, and in particular, free school lunch programs for children of low-income families. In the past, Fox has even suggested children be forced to work for their meals.

Media Matters put this together, comparing Ryan to...Rush? Yes:



These Two Charts say Ryan is Wrong Again:

Budget punishes those in poverty, exposes Paul Ryan's phony focus on dignity

Greg Kaufmann of the Nation:

 “Promoting the natural rights and the inherent dignity of the individual must be the central focus of all government.”

That’s what Congressman Paul Ryan wrote earlier this month in an exclusive commentary for Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. This week, he revealed exactly where his laser-like focus on dignity would lead this nation... 

Mr. Ryan’s focus on dignity… means a cut in food stamps of $133 billion over ten years, even though 76 percent of participating households include a child, senior or disabled person, nearly half of all recipients are children and 40 percent of single mothers use food stamps to help feed their families.   

Mr. Ryan’s focus on dignity… means the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and attacking Medicaid with his block-granting light saber. The repeal results in at least 33 million people losing their healthcare... 

Mr. Ryan’s focus on dignity… means not only extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy but handing them an additional $3 trillion in tax cuts to boot. If he just extended the Bush tax cuts, but nixed the Don’t Worry Rich People, Ryan Loves You additional tax cuts—that alone would pay for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the Medicaid cuts, the SNAP cuts and domestic discretionary spending cuts.

All told, Ryan hands out about $4.4 trillion in tax cuts that primarily benefit the very best off, and pays for it with $4.15 trillion in spending cuts to programs that primarily benefit the poor and middle class.

There's lots more. Read it and weep.