Mitt Romney’s Running Mate

You don’t want this guy this close to the Presidency:

I’ve never met the man but by most accounts he is intelligent, genuinely well liked, even by his foes and he doesn’t suffer from Romney’s “Robot” affliction. In addition he has an authenticity and sincerity regarding his agenda that Romney clearly lacks. He has made it his mission to layout in perfect detail his plan for American’s future – unfortunately it is a plan that is extremely detrimental for most Americans.

Below is an extended excerpt of a Think Progress article titled “12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan”:

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Rand is “a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue.” 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.

Sounds like a delightful woman doesn’t she? To his credit, he says he doesn’t support her belief in atheism. Well of course not, that wouldn’t go over well with his base at all now would it? And apparently he did publicly reject her philosophy this year BUT this comes after years of being a self-proclaimed devotee of her views and not surprisingly this rejection just happened to occur during an election year. Hmmm perhaps he is more like Romney than I realized. #FlippyFlopper!

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.”

Repeat:  Ryan’s plan includes extending tax cuts for the very wealthy while NOT extending those very same tax cuts for those with the lowest incomes. Utterly preposterous.

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 beneficiaries 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.

He has also at one point “proposed ending Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor, and replacing it with a lump sum for states to use as they saw fit.” (The New Yorker)

Dismantle Medicare AND Medicaid. Sure, that sounds like an excellent idea – in bizarro world. Palin inaccurately categorized the Affordable Health Care Act as a program that would result in the creation of death panels, Ryan’s plan would just result in DEATH.

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.

Clarify:  Under the current system YOU pay into Social Security through payroll taxes. Ryan wants you to be able to allocate portions of the monies received through those taxes into private accounts that will be subject to the ups and downs of the stock market. Yep, those Wall Street cats. Remember this is the same group that helped tank the economy. Soooo yeah, thanks but no thanks.

5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years.

6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.

7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil.

8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .

9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”

10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.”

11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget.

He later had to apologize for being a douchebag.

12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.

Ryan joined 62 other Republicans in co-sponsoring the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which declares that a fertilized egg “shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.” This would outlaw abortion, some forms of contraception and invitro fertilization.

Yet another Republican who believes women shouldn’t have a say in what happens to their bodies. Instead, he believes that HE knows what is best for you. This is especially ironic given his fervent support of individualism and people taking responsibility for themselves. #Hypocrite

Remember in 2008 when you had to consider the possibility of an elderly President McCain dying while in office and a Vice President Sarah Palin would then ascend to the highest office in the land and become President Palin? Right. So think about a possible President Ryan with this type of agenda running the country. Talk about lights out for America.  #Shudder

If this ticket manages to disenfranchise enough voters and squeak by with the slimmest of wins then the Mayans would have only been a few weeks off with their end of the world date. Please vote responsibly in November, the future of your country depends on it.

#ObamaBiden2012