Paul Ryan's personal ads

These just crack me up...

Holding Ryan accountable: 65,000 join Rob Zerban in saying NO to Ryan

Rob Zerban, the Kenosha Democrat running for Paul Ryan's House seat in 2012, visits Ryan's district office to present 65,000 signatures opposing Ryan's disastrous Medicare proposal. Link

Ryan plan hurts women, but House Boys Club makes the decisions

When the Ryan/Republican Budget Club gets together, it's NO GIRLS ALLOWED:

Bloomberg News:

During a recent trip to New York, Democratic Senators Mary Landrieu and Patty Murray lamented one aspect of the U.S. deficit talks that they say may cloud the outcome: No women lawmakers have been at the table.

It’s a concern shared by some female colleagues, who say programs that disproportionately serve women and children are at risk in negotiations over where to cut federal spending. Several of the programs were targeted by Representative Paul Ryan in a budget that passed the U.S. House in April and which he and many other Republicans see as a road map for shrinking the government.

 It's been called Ryan's war on women.  More from Bloomberg:

The budget called for reductions in food stamps, two-thirds of whose adult recipients are women; Pell grants, about two- thirds of which go to female college students; Medicaid, about 70 percent of whose beneficiaries are female, and child care. This month, House Republicans voted to cut nutritional aid to low-income pregnant women by about 12 percent....

The Republican budget also called for reducing Medicaid spending by more than $700 billion over the next decade by converting the program into block grants to the states. Twice as many females as males benefit from the insurance system for low- income Americans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Medicaid is generally restricted to poor children, pregnant women, parents of dependent children, the disabled and those 65 and older. In 2003, seven of the top 10 hospital services billed to the program were maternity-related, Kaiser says, including cesarean sections, fetal monitoring and labor inductions.

Another $127 billion in savings in the Ryan budget would come from food stamps.

“When women are at the table, the debate changes,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat. “We bring to whatever the discussion is the experiences we’ve had as women, and they’re different than men.”

The House budget would convert Medicare to a voucher program in 2022, when the government would start providing a set amount of funds for purchasing private insurance. Women make up 56 percent of Medicare recipients, and they are more reliant on the program’s system of defined benefits because they have more chronic health conditions and live an average of about five years longer than men, according to the Census Bureau.

Under the Ryan plan, “if there’s a health catastrophe, “you’re on your own,” said Terry O’Neill, president of the Washington-based National Organization for Women. Many women “have no savings, no ability to pay for this.”

Milk Toast Jared Bernstein Exposes and Embarrasses Paul Ryan's Economic Voodoo.

A line that isn't used often enough by critics of Rep. Paul Ryan, but applies most of the time, is "he thinks his sh*t doesn't stink." In a recent Squawk Box appearance with Jared Bernstein, Ryan's smirks and smart asses his way through the debate. This is the real Paul Ryan, letting his guard down in a moment of unfiltered candor and narcissism.

[Bernstein, an economist, is a senior fellow at the  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and previously was  economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.]

While Bernstein is often a little too generic and neoliberal for me, even he sounds like a flaming progressive next to the Randian/Friedmanesque demagoguery of Paul Ryan. I swear, Bernstein was channeling every argument I've ever made against the Republican Party of extremism, proving even Blue Dog Dems are starting to get it. Oddly, Bernstein energized me...while Ryan stuck to his theories.

Ryan doesn't like criticism, or being taken down a peg! In fact, he lashes out at Bernstein with demeaning quotes like: "alright, can I get in here soon," or the surreal put down of the actual function of government, "I just don't think you can sit in Washington and micromanage the US economy." What, with regulations? The nontechnical economic term used my most Americans for Ryan would be; he's dangerously nuts. Ryan seems to be under the bizarre impression the other big economic powers in the world don't have economic regulations or any government controls.

TV SPOT: Paul Ryan. Protecting Big Oil Profits. Lining His Own Pockets

The League of Conservation Voters has launched a tough new television ad in Rep. Paul Ryan's district calling him out for his recently exposed conflict of interest: supporting billions in subsidies for oil companies while he and his family profited from some of the same companies receiving those tax breaks. The television ad will run this week in the Milwaukee media market.

“Congressman Ryan pretends he’s a Boy Scout, but he appears to be using his position in Congress to increase his own personal wealth,” said Navin Nayak, LCV Senior Vice President of Campaigns. “Congressman Ryan should stop asking Wisconsin taxpayers to continue funding massive government handouts to the most profitable oil companies, especially when his family stands to benefit from some of those same companies’ earnings.”

At a recent town hall meeting Rep. Ryan claimed to support ending subsidies for oil companies, yet one week later he voted to continue billions in these taxpayer handouts. A recent Newsweek investigation also revealed that Rep. Ryan, his wife and father-in-law have made hundreds of thousands off the oil companies whose tax breaks he continues to support. He has also proposed a 2012 budget that gives oil companies billions more in special tax breaks.

Here's the Newsweek/Daily Beast expose.

Even Big Jim Sensenbrenner backing away from Ryan Medicare plan

Wow.

Confronted by a 54-year-old constituent at a town meeting in his district on Sunday, all Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner --  the extreme conservative who represents one of the safest districts in the country, which happens to border Paul Ryan's -- wouldn't defend Ryan's Medicare plan.

According to the Brookfiield Patch, the best Sensenbrenner could come up with was:

"I'm not here to say he's (Ryan) right or he's wrong, but at least he's got a plan."

Not exactly a vote of confidence, even though Sensebrenner, like almost every other Republican in the House, voted for Ryan's budget plan which included the Medicare changes.

Sensenbrenner was questioned by 54-year-old Paul Race of Menomonee Falls, who would lose the guaranteed coverage offered by Medicare under Ryan's plan  and instead be required to purchase private insurance with a government voucher -- for considerably less than the government spends on Medicare.

"If it's good enough for the people 54 and younger ... then I think it's good enough for people 55 and older," said Race, a former Marine and a teacher of 25 years.

Huffington Post and FiredogLake have more.

It's Rob Zerban's birthday; a campaign contribution would be a nice gift

Rob Zerban, the Kenosha Democrat who is mounting a serious campaign challenge to Rep. Paul Ryan in 2012, turns 43 today.

Make it a happy birthday with a donation, small or large, to his campaign. Here's the link.

Want to know more? Check out his campaign website.

And here's a Huffington Post piece calling him the first Wisconsin Republican with a chance to beat Paul Ryan. He's the real thing. Help him if you can.

The Shine is off Paul Ryan, the anti-hero.

Lawrence O'Donnell pretty much said it all for me in this commentary:





I thought this article laid out the real problem with Medicare, and the entire health care system; it's the overall cost of care in the first place.

The GOP's solution to fixing our health care system is to repeal “Obamacare” and cost-shift the Medicare problem on to the backs of future Medicare recipients. Fixing a fiscal problem should not rely on simply cost-shifting the problem to a subset of the population (e.g. Medicare recipients) or the entire population. Solving that problem should involve removing the underlying causes so that the problem doesn't become some endemic part of our culture. 

Check out past Ryan posts prior to my contributions here, at Democurmudgeon. 

The Most Unpopular Politician in America Award Goes To -

Drum Roll Please! And the winner is - Wisconsin\'s own Paul Ryan (R-Wall St).

Democrats are winning the messaging war on Rep. Paul Ryan’s bid to overhaul Medicare, with a new Bloomberg poll finding 57 percent of Americans believe they would be worse off under his plan.

Only 34 percent said they would be better off if Congress replaced “traditional Medicare” with a program to purchase private insurance with government subsidies, as Ryan has proposed.

The poll also found Ryan is now the nation’s third most disliked Republican, with net unfavorable ratings that trail only former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But more than half surveyed said they have no opinion of the Wisconsin Republican.

Sure he lost out to Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, but they are not really politicians anymore, they are just carnival shrills trying to cash in on their fleeting fame. paul ryan is the most unpopular sitting politician in America. While more than half of America does not know who he is, to know him is to dislike him! Just think, this is the guy who Alberta Darling hails as a hero.

Cross posted at Blogging Blue.

Best answer yet on Ryan Medicare plan: 'Yes and no, but I could be wrong'

OK, that headline's an exaggeration, but not by much. Consider:

“I’m not a U.S. senator. If I were a U.S. senator, yes, I would vote yes or no on it.”

That's George Allen, Virginia Republican candidate for US Senate, evading an answer on whether he supports Paul Ryan's Medicare plan.

The Washington Post reports it is becoming a litmus test for GOP presidential candidates.

More from Politico, source of the Allen quote, here.

Polling Data Poor For Alberta Darling's Hero, Paul Ryan

Recalled River Hills Republican Senator Alberta Darling recently said, "Totally, go Paul Ryan!" like she was coaching him from the sidelines in a losing relay race, but a new poll finds little support for his proposal to privatize and wreck Medicare.

Little wonder: Ryan's favorable poll ratings among respondents who have an opinion about him have descended to weak, Newt ("Tiffany") Gingrich levels, and though Darling seems oblivious to Ryan's toxicity, voters in Darling's district need to be reminded of her gushy support for "Totally, Go" Paul as her recall election approaches.

Links to the poll and video of her Ryan endorsement, here.

No matter how you ask it, Ryan Medicare plan tanks in national poll

Fifty-one per cent of the people in a recent national survey were uncertain what they thought of Paul Ryan.  But they certainly knew what they thought of his Medicare plan. 

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post:

Bloomberg’s pollers asked this question in three different ways. First, they asked whether respondents were more worried that Republicans would take Congress and “implement their proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and many other domestic programs” or Democrats would hold onto power and “continue their current spending policies.” Republicans proved scarier by eight points.

Then they asked about whether a proposal “to replace traditional Medicare so that individuals buy their own private insurance with the help of government subsidies” would make you better or worse off. Worse off led by 23 points.

Then they asked whether knowing a Republican candidate “wants to change Medicare to a private pay system with government subsidies” would make him or her more or less attractive. Less attractive took it in a 14-point landslide. So whether you speak about the plan vaguely or specifically, whether you mention its Republican roots or not, it’s very, very unpopular.

Numbers here.

Ryan's Medicaid cuts would be devastating to state's economy

Paul Ryan’s proposed Medicaid cuts could put more than 30,000 Wisconsin jobs at risk, and cost the state $3.4 billion in business activity.

That's a worst case scenario, if Medicaid spending were cut 33% in 2011.  But smaller cuts would also have a big  negative impact on the state's economy.

Implementing a 5 percent cut in Medicaid spending in 2011 would: cost Wisconsin almost $250.8 million in federal Medicaid dollars, and put at risk nearly $519.3 million in business activity and 4,830 jobs;

A 15 percent cut in federal Medicaid spending in 2011 would have cost Wisconsin nearly $752.4 million in federal Medicaid dollars, and put at risk nearly $1.6 billion in business activity and 14,490 jobs;
Those numbers from a new report, Jobs at Risk" by the national health care consumer organization Families USA:

The Republican budget proposal, introduced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, would subject Medicaid to some of the largest cuts in the history of the program. This proposal would cut federal Medicaid funding significantly—not by reducing underlying health care costs, but simply by shifting those costs to already overburdened state governments. It would do this by converting the program to a block grant that would provide considerably less federal funding with each passing year. The Republican budget proposal would cut federal funding to the states by 5 percent in 2013. In 2014, the cut would be 15 percent. Over the coming years, these funding cuts would get larger and larger, until, at the end of the 10-year period, the cut in federal funds would approximate 33 percent.

The report's conclusion:

As options to reduce the federal deficit are weighed and balanced, the discussion should

include recognition of the powerful economic stimulus that federal spending has on state Medicaid programs. This report quantifies the potential business activity and jobs that would be put at risk if federal Medicaid spending is cut dramatically. Less easily quantified, but equally important, is the impact on the lives of state residents who rely on Medicaid for their health care. Medicaid provides a vital health care safety net in every state. It is a lifeline for children, people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, and low-income elderly people. It is there to help families that have been hit by job loss or other unexpected economic hardships. And Medicaid is the only source of financial help for millions of families who are struggling to pay for nursing home or other long-term care for parents or family members.

Medicaid is good medicine for state economies and for families as our nation recovers from the recession. This is exactly the wrong time for Congress to cut a program that stimulates the economy while also providing a boost to individuals and families who are facing hard economic times.

Voters split evenly on Ryan Medicare plan -- and that's just Republicans

The Hill reports:

Republican primary voters are evenly split on the Medicare aspects of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget plan, with 41 percent supporting it and 43 percent opposing it, according to a national telephone poll [Dick Morris] conducted on June 18-19 among 700 likely Republican primary voters...

The survey’s findings suggest that even among the base Republican voters, the Ryan plan is vulnerable to attack on the Medicare issue.

Anything the sleazeball Morris is associated with leaves a bad taste, but his polling has always seemed legit.

If Ryan's plan is in that much trouble with voters in his own party, how is the GOP going to sell it to the rest of America? Morris has one idea:

However, voters strongly supported an alternative to the Ryan plan that would combine its flat fee approach with a safety net feature to protect against catastrophic illness. This additional feature might well provide a way for House Republicans to mute the potential of this issue as a negative in the 2012 elections.

Told that “some say that a better plan would be to use the Ryan model of a flat payment but to include a safety net so that the government would pay all of a senior citizen’s medical costs if the illness was severe and their health insurance coverage would not pay for it,” Republican primary voters approved of the alternative plan by 53-29. Men agreed by 58-28 and women overcame their opposition to the Ryan plan, agreeing with the new proposal by 49-29.

But remember, those are only Republicans. It's going to take quite a sales job to keep the Medicare issue from sinking the GOP next year.

Ryan Was Never Courageous, But Is He A Common Crook, Profiting From His Legislative Agenda?

Most Americans had never heard of a slick Wisconsin congressman, Paul Ryan, when suddenly the corporate-owned media started using the words "serious" and "courageous" in front of his name. Corporate media was already very aware of Ryan, the Member of Congress who has taken more in legalistic corporate bribes than any other politician from his state... ever. Wall Street's darling, Ryan was always pushing their agenda-- whether helping reluctant Republicans to support the TARP bailouts or voting to gut Medicare and Social Security. Other than a precious few local journalists and national bloggers, it was only Paul Krugman who shouted from the rooftops that Ryan was a garden-variety corporate shill with not a single new or worthwhile idea and that he had nothing serious or courageous to add to the national debate.

This week the Daily Beast highlighted the garden-varietyness of Ryan's politics when they pointed out that he and his family personally profited from his financial agenda in Congress. Daniel Stone reported that Ryan "stands to make money from his stakes in four businesses that lease land to energy companies which would benefit from $45 billion in tax breaks and subsidies in his proposed budget."

When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the GOP blueprint for cutting government spending, he asked Americans to make sacrifices on everything from Medicare to education, while preserving lucrative tax subsidies for the booming oil, mining and energy industries.

It turns out a constituency within his own personal investments stood to benefit from those tax breaks, Newsweek and the Daily Beast have learned.

The financial disclosure report Ryan filed with Congress last month and made public this week shows he and his wife, Janna, own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan's budget plan.

Ryan's father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

Some of these firms would be eligible for portions of the $45 billion in energy tax breaks and subsidies over 10 years protected in the Wisconsin lawmaker’s proposed budget. “Those [energy developing companies] benefit a lot from these subsidies,” explained Russ Harding, an energy policy analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, when presented with the situation, without reference to Ryan. “Without those, they’re going to be less profitable.”

To ethics watchdogs, Ryan’s effort to extend the tax breaks creates the potential appearance of a conflict of interest.

“Sure, senior citizens should have to pay more for health care, but landholders like [Ryan] who lease property to big oil companies, well, their government subsidies must be protected at all costs,” says Melanie Sloan, the director of the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It smacks of hypocrisy.”

...Rep. Dan Boren, a Democrat from Oklahoma who has announced his retirement next year, also owns stakes in three of the four same companies as Ryan. The two lawmakers are related through marriage. Boren is the first cousin of Ryan’s wife.

Boren aligned with his party and voted no on Ryan’s budget. But a month prior, Boren voted with Republicans (and only 12 other Democrats) to oppose an amendment that would have financially constrained major oil companies.

In a written statement, Boren told Newsweek and the Daily Beast, “It should come as no surprise the way I voted because the oil and gas industry is the largest private employer in Oklahoma.”

In addition to the tax breaks, Ryan’s family has benefited in recent years from another form of federal largesse-- farm subsidies. Federal records show his father-in-law and great-aunt have collected more than $50,000 in agriculture subsidies on lands owned by the family.

Ryan’s budget had proposed cutting $30 billion in farm subsidies over the next 10 years, although some conservatives criticized the number for being too low.

Blue America has been urging members to Stop Paul Ryan for some time now. And now that there is a credible Democrat running against him, Rob Zerban, Establishment Democrats in Washington and in Wisconsin are starting to take challenging Ryan seriously. On Tuesday Mike Tate, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman, said "The least Paul Ryan can do is explain why he should personally profit from Big Oil tax breaks while asking Wisconsin's seniors and disabled citizens to pay for it."

Huntsman will run for Pres on Ryan's Road to Ruin

There's always that 2 per cent that didn't get the word, the Marine Corps used to say.

How else to explain Jon Huntsman, who enters the GOP predidential race today as the biggest Ryan budget backer in the field?

Talking Points Memo:

The committed moderate and former Obama administration ambassador to China kicks off his campaign today, and according to previews, he plans to make strong support for Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) proposal to end Medicare as we know it a key component of his kick off speech.

Politico's Mike Allen spilled the beans about Huntsman's Reagan-themed kickoff in Jersey City, NJ.

"Huntsman will lean into his support for the Ryan budget, and will say that defense spending should be on the table, including base closures," Allen reports. He writes the opening week of Huntsman 2012 will include taking on Obama over foreign policy, too, specifically, "his contention that Obama's plan for getting out of Afghanistan is too slow, and that intervening in Libya was not in our national interest."

Huntsman was one of the first to wrap both hands around Ryan budget, telling ABC a couple weeks ago that he'd vote for the Medicare changes contained in it if he got the chance.

He was non-commital about the Ryan plan in May, basically saying, Well, it's an idea," but he has warmed to it considerably since then.

This at the same time a Florida Tea Partier is warning the GOP will lose if they stick with Ryan's plan, and polls show voters are set against it.

Go figure.

"Cleaning out the tax code" for wealthy, wipes out middle class tax deductions.

You’ve heard about the Republican plan to ease the tax burden on the wealthy by reducing their rate from 35 to 25 percent (Pawlenty is going for 15 percent). But that requires doing away with those special “loopholes and tax breaks” in the code that would supposedly put us all on a level the playing field.

It turns out this “revenue neutral” approach is not so neutral, and like I’ve been writing about here, the loopholes effect the middle class more than wealthy income earners. Ezra Klein wrote this about “cleaning out the tax code:”

According to the Tax Policy Center, the largest tax expenditures, in order, are the breaks for employer-provided health care, pension contributions, mortgage interest, depreciation of capital equipment, state and local tax payments, and charitable contributions. We're not talking ethanol credits here, and we're not even talking about tax breaks for special interests. We're talking about tax preferences for the middle class.


So far, the discussion over raising revenues by cleaning out the code has used comfortably vague language about "tax breaks" and "loopholes" and "expenditures." But to see serious money from this effort, these are the sorts of breaks, loopholes and expenditures we'll have to go after.

That’s what Paul Ryan’s Republicans are talking about, lowering the tax bracket from 35 to 25 percent for the wealthy, by eliminating the middle class “tax breaks” and “loopholes.” This revenue neutral scam, now that it's been exposed, is just another unspeakably cruel joke by likes of Paul Ryan and his fellow wealthfare conspirators.

Dear Patriots, Ryan Is Killing The TEA Party

"Republicans will lose if they support the Ryan Medicare plan. Americans do not support the Ryan plan." If Democrats make big gains in 2012, Wilkinson's email says, "Expect the GOP to then blame the Tea Party for losses."

Who is Wilkinson, you ask, that he is so willing to bash the Ryan "plan?" Is he some Godless, radical, Socialistist? An elite, effete, university professor? A hidden lefty, fellow-travelling, lamestream medialist?

Nah. He's South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson who is having trouble finding anyone who supports the Roadmap to Nowhere.

Ryan takes extreme position, votes to hurt indigent women and children

Ryanwatch reports on HR 2112, the Agricultural Appropriations Bill, debated June 15-16:

On nine  separate votes, Ryan was MORE extreme than his Republican colleagues:

Most Extreme: Ryan votes for Broun Amendment (H Amdt 438) to cut funding for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program by $604 million. (RC 430, Jun 15)

Here's how Joe Conason  frames the vote:

By cutting ... WIC, according to the experts at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the subcommittee will deprive hundreds of thousands of indigent women and children of program services, which include healthy foods, nutrition counseling and referrals to health care providers when necessary. The exact number of victims will depend on how fast food prices go up. But there will surely be many more infants and children who must cope with the ill effects of low birth weight and anemia, and all the other ills arising from bad nutrition in this wealthy and verdant nation.

As usual, the mean impulse to save money by punishing the poor is short-sighted, since the obvious result is a growing population that is either crippled at birth or ruined in youth, requiring expensive hospitalization, special education or, eventually, prison cells.

Republicans reject this extreme budget cutting 64-173. Ryan votes YES.

Much more at Ryanwatch.

Well, isn't that special? Gay marriage foe, Archbishop Dolan, invites Ryan to Mass

Paul Ryan attends Mass at Saint Patricks Cathedral at the invitation of  New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, former Milwaukee archbishop, who called Ryan "my good friend." After Mass, the Ryan family met privately with Dolan at his residence.

Apparently fellow Catholic Maureen Dowd wasn't invited, having devoted Sunday's op ed column in the New York Times to the archcishop, to wit:

The archbishop has been ferocious in fighting against marriage between same-sex couples, painting it as a perversity against nature.

If only his church had been as ferocious in fighting against the true perversity against nature: the unending horror of pedophile priests and the children who trusted them.

And she was just getting warmed up.