12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan

[SunsetDreams]

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. Ryan heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue.” Rand 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. Though he publicly rejected “her philosophy” in 2012, Ryan had professed himself a strong devotee. “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,” he said at a D.C. gathering honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” “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.”

2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires. Paul Ryan’s infamous budget — which Romney embraced — replaces “the current tax structure with two brackets — 25 percent and 10 percent — and cut the top rate from 35 percent.” Federal tax collections would fall “by about $4.5 trillion over the next decade” as a result and to avoid increasing the national debt, the budget proposes massive cuts in social programs and “special-interest loopholes and tax shelters that litter the code.” But 62 percent of the savings would come from programs that benefit the lower- and middle-classes, who would also experience a tax increase. That’s because while Ryan “would extend the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of this year, he would not extend President Obama’s tax cuts for those with the lowest incomes, which will expire at the same time.” Households “earning more than $1 million a year, meanwhile, could see a net tax cut of about $300,000 annually.”



Audiences have booed Ryan for the unfair distribution:

3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. Ryan’s latest budget transforms the existing version of Medicare, in which government provides seniors with a guaranteed benefit, into a “premium support” system. All future retirees would receive a government contribution to purchase insurance from an exchange of private plans or traditional fee-for-service Medicare. But since the premium support voucher does not keep up with increasing health care costs, the Congressional Budget Offices estimates that new beneficiaries could pay up to $1,200 more by 2030 and more than $5,900 more by 2050. A recent study also found that had the plan been implemented in 2009, 24 million beneficiares enrolled in the program would have paid higher premiums to maintain their choice of plan and doctors. Ryan would also raise Medicare’s age of eligibility to 67.

4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.” In September of 2011, Ryan agreed with Rick Perry’s characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” and since 2005 has advocated for privatizing the retirement benefit and investing it in stocks and bonds. Conservatives claim that this would “outperform the current formula based on wages earned and overall wage appreciation,” but the economic crisis of 2008 should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers who seek to hinge Americans’ retirement on the stock market. In fact, “a person with a private Social Security account similar to what President George W. Bush proposed in 2005? would have lost much of their retirement savings.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/11/677171/12-things-you-should-know-about-vice-presidential-candidate-paul-ryan/



More on Paul Ryan's Budget for our Country

I could do this in detail, but you can learn everything you need to know by understanding two numbers: $4.6 trillion and 14 million.

Of these, $4.6 trillion is the size of the mystery meat in the budget. Ryan proposes tax cuts that would cost $4.6 trillion over the next decade relative to current policy — that is, relative even to making the Bush tax cuts permanent — but claims that his plan is revenue neutral, because he would make up the revenue loss by closing loopholes. For example, he would … well, actually, he refuses to name a single example of a loophole he wants to close.

So the budget is a fraud. No, it’s not “imperfect”, it’s not a bit shaky on the numbers; it’s completely based on almost $5 trillion dollars of alleged revenue that are pure fabrication.

...

On the other side, 14 million is the minimum number of people who would lose health insurance due to Medicaid cuts — the Urban Institute, working off the very similar plan Ryan unveiled last year, puts it at between 14 and 27 million people losing Medicaid.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/ryan-in-two-numbers/?smid=tw-share




Romney plan according to an independent Study?
Study: Romney Plan Would Raise Taxes On 95% Of Americans
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/study-romney-plan-would-raise-taxes-on-95-of-americans.php




Romney Called that study a Joke but refused to release his own analysis.
It was good enough for him when he used it to slam Gov. Perry though

Objective, Third-Party Analysis Showed Governor Perry’s Plan Would Raise Taxes On Millions Of American Families – But He Doesn’t Seem Interested In The Discussion.

Don't let Romney fool you that he will be the one making all the decisions and policies and that they will somehow be different. Their policies are the same. Romney has backed Paul Ryan's budget even when that budget was slammed for being the disaster it is.

Five Times Mitt Romney Has Embraced The Ryan Budget
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021112396

Romney/Ryan are a disaster for our Country.

[notadmblnd]

1. 13. was voted biggest brown-noser in high school

[SunsetDreams]

2. The sad thing is

you are probably right lol

[SunsetDreams]

3. .

[sad sally]

4. Strange how a man who's father died at an early age which entitled his surviving children

and wife to his Social Security benefits (which he says he saved and used for college) wants to gut the "ponzi" scheme. Is it really his belief that this social government benefit he received until he was 18 didn't keep his family together?

Edited to add this find:

According to US News and World Report, “Ryan’s father died when Paul was only 16. Using the Social Security survivor’s benefits he received until his 18th birthday, he paid for his education at Miami University in Ohio, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science in 1992.” According to the Chicago Tribune, “Ryan’s late father was a lawyer who died when Ryan was 16. He has said his father’s death made him grow up fast. Until he was 18, Ryan, the youngest of four children, collected Social Security survivor’s benefits, which he said he socked away for college.” [US News and World Report, 7/23/08; Chicago Tribune, 4/17/11]

Guess those monthly benefits must have been very generous for those two years to have grown enough to pay for college.

.......................end of edit.


Speaking from personal experience, even though it was almost 64 years ago, the small amount my sisters and I got from our Dad's benefits after he was killed kept food on the table. It also solidified us into lifetime liberal Democrats who understood very early the need for a compassionate government, as the company where our Dad was killed didn't.

[SunsetDreams]

5. I know you would

think someone like him who has used it before would do everything in their power to make sure it's available for others. Subjecting it to the market where we run the risk of it crashing, just like the entire system did is irresponsible.

I'm sorry for the loss of your dad. It's hard going through life without either of your parents. I'm glad that what little you received helped in keeping food on the table. My dad died when I was 19 and my mom when I was 28.