At a campaign rally in Virginia this morning Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced he is choosing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to be his Vice Presidential choice. This choice proves once and for all that Romney’s economic policy will favor the rich and powerful, while fooling millions of hard-working Americans into believing he stands for their best interests.
Ryan is a controversial seven-time Congressman from Janesville, WI who is also the Chairman of the House Budget Committee. He has been a long-time Washington insider promoting the interests of the wealthy and powerful by advocating to make the Bush-era tax cuts permanents, even though this policy has helped bring the country to the brink of economic disaster. By extending these tax cuts, which primarily benefit America’s wealthiest tax payers, and pave the way for middle-calls taxpayers to shoulder more of the burden for generating revenue, America’s cities, counties, and states run the risk of bankruptcy as revenue streams dry up. Americans who vote for this ticket can look forward to less basic services, a crumbling infrastructure, and more out-of-pocket expenses. Ryan is no candidate worthy of presidential reach.
The meme above sums up Ryan’s economic philosophical nicely. During the eight years of Bush the Younger’s reign in Washington America saw income inequality increase as the rich got richer and the middle-class got more into debt, record numbers of corporate bankruptcies and fraud such as the mighty collapse of Enron, a war in Iraq we could not afford and did not need, and the erosion of respect for the rule of law and government. In the last three years the Republican’s have continually laid the blame for America’s malaise squarely at the feet of President Obama, but history and the facts show otherwise.
Jim Messina, director for President Obama’s reelection campaign, summed up Ryan’s foolish economic views nicely in a statement released immediately after Romney’s announcement:
“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.”
A vote for the Romney-Ryan ticket by any middle-class American, indeed anyone making less than $250,000 is a vote for cutting off one’s own nose to spite one’s face. America is at another crossroads, and the Republican route is one we have been down before and cannot afford to go down again.