It has been
barely a week since that Saturday morning at the Battleship Wisconsin near the
Nauticus Naval History Museum in Norfolk, VA, when the Republican Party’s
Nominee Mitt Romney selected Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his
Vice-Presidential nominee.
Representative
Ryan gained national prominence as the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget
in the US House during the 112th Congress. The budget passed by this
committee, referred to as either its official name of “The Path to Prosperity”
or its common name of the Ryan Plan, contains controversial measures behind it.
It proposes
in turning Medicare and Medicaid, one of the most successful government
programs for the elderly and poor, into a voucher system. “ObamaCare”, which
was found to be Constitutional by a Conservative leaning Supreme Court in a 5-4
decision back in late June, would be dismantled of key provisions as part of
the Republican’s goal of repealing it. VoteVets.org made an observation that
the Ryan Plan makes no reference to our Veterans and their benefits. Other
draconian cuts include slashing Pell Grants for college students and kicking
people off the food stamp rolls. It should be noted that a good percentage of
people that benefit from the food stamp program are children.
Even though
this budget passed the Republican controlled House of Representatives along
party lines, the bill was DOA in the Democratic controlled Senate as it failed
57-40 with some Senate Republicans crossing over to strike it down.
The most
glaring of the Ryan Plan is how the government draws in revenue as specified in
Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Under this budget, the plan to
draw in revenue would be to keep the Bush Tax Cuts and then an additional $4
trillion (yes, TRILLION) in tax cuts for the Top 1% wage earners in the hopes
that by some miracle that will stimulate the economy.
In the 30+
years that this country has enacted Supply Side Economics (AKA “Reganomics”) as
its primary economic policy, the only people that have benefited from this are
those at the top while the rest of us have seen our incomes stagnate at best.
For instance,
under the Ryan Plan, Mitt Romney would pay less than 1% in taxes. According to
returns for 2010, Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, paid an effective federal tax rate
of 13.9%. The burden of payment for the services we need to function as a
society would shift further to those at the lower ends of the income ladder.
In the days
since Mr. Romney picked Representative Ryan as his running mate, he has done
what he can to distance his campaign from the Ryan Plan.
Well, it’s his now.
Well, it’s his now.
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