* Imagine that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have won the election. How would your life change?
1. You could lose your Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid.
> Paul Ryan, as a follower of Ayn Rand, puts people into two categories--- producers and parasites. Guess which category Paul Ryan would put those people receiving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? It is no secret that Paul Ryan has pushed handing out vouchers to senior citizens instead of having the Medicare program. I wonder how voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia feel about losing these programs.
2. Women would lose even more access to reproductive health.
> Romney refuses to even address the issues women would like to discuss, and has handed over that part of the campaign to his wife. Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney would take away a woman's reproductive health choices. As a member of the House of Representative, "...Paul Ryan sponsored fetal personhood bill, opposes family planning funds..." (Link) Women could lose access to birth control pills, gynecological screenings, and be subjected to unwanted, and forced vaginal probe ultrasounds.
3. Points to ponder---
> In 2007, Paul Ryan voted against raising the minimum wage from $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr (Clerk.gov: HR 2- Roll Call Vote 18).
In 2007, Paul Ryan voted against reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program which provides health care for poor children (Clerk.gov: HR 3963- Roll Call Vote 1009.)
(See more of his views at OntheIssues.)
4. Under a Romney-Ryan administration the rich, the super rich, and corporations will get more tax cuts. The middle class and the working poor, would see their taxes go up. This is all very frightening because Romney and Ryan give total power to the rich.
5. Both Romney and Ryan are against the Affordable Care Act that has already helped Americans with health screenings, gynecological exams, and preventive medicine.
• • • CNN raises some interesting points about Romney's pick of Ryan:
...Ryan’s own Catholicism became a major issue this year, with the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops criticizing his proposed
federal budget for what the bishops said would be its adverse impact on
the poor.
The bishops cautioned against overreaching budget cuts that endanger
“poor and vulnerable people.” The bishops’ message called on “Congress
and the administration to protect essential help for poor families and
vulnerable children and to put the poor first in budget priorities.”
This split between politically conservative and liberal Catholics has
existed for decades in the Catholic Church. But with Ryan running for
vice president, some experts expect this divide to be sharpened....
Members of the Catholic Church have always been concerned about the poor, the elderly, and the sick. With a strong belief in social justice and concern for humanity, churches continue to provide food pantries, hot meals, school supplies, and special help for the poor and disabled. Would churches and congregations be forced to do more with a Romney-Ryan administration?
+ What about farmers? How has Republican Paul Ryan supported (or not supported) farmers? If his budget bill is any indication of his regard for farming, it is not so good.
Agweek:
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said March 21
that the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., would cut the Agriculture Department budget by $180 billion over
10 years and hurt programs important to North Dakota while other
Democrats and farm leaders also criticized the Ryan proposal.
“The
House Republican proposal also upends a bipartisan agreement on the
amount of federal support for agriculture programs and will make it
extremely difficult to craft a new farm bill this year,” Conrad said in a
news release.
“Leaders of the House and Senate agriculture
committees had agreed to cut $23 billion in agriculture, conservation
and nutrition program funding in the new farm bill to assist with
deficit reduction,” Conrad said. “However, the House Republican proposal
calls for about $180 billion in cuts to farm bill programs, including
$31 billion to commodity and crop insurance programs, $133.5 billion to
nutrition assistance programs, and about $16 billion to conservation
programs.”
Romney also wants to cut wind farm subsidies that many farmers receive (see Dallas Observer). Those are all pretty significant cuts.
......................
HuffPost:
He's been in Congress for nearly 13 years, but Rep. Paul Ryan
(R-Wis.) has only seen two of his bills pass into law during that time.
Ryan, who Mitt Romney has tapped as his running mate,
passed a bill into law in July 2000 that renames a post office in his
district. Thanks to Ryan, the post office on 1818 Milton Ave. in
Janesville, Wis., is now known as "Les Aspin Post Office Building."
The other time Ryan saw one of his bills become law was in December
2008, with legislation to change the way arrows (as in bows and arrows)
are hit with an excise tax....
He must have been too busy reading and preaching about Ayn Rand to work on legislation to become law. That kind of record shows how ineffective he has been.
