Why not Paul Ryan?

[Harrisburgia]

I do not think Paul Ryan is a Satanist (unlike at least one member of this forum).  But nonetheless, I do not support the guy for Vice President, mainly because of his congressional actions during the Bush years.  Like Romney (and Bush), Ryan seemed to hold a different definition of "conservative" and "limited government" than I did.  Now, with the wave a magic wand, he's the heir to "fiscal conservatism."  Doesn't add up.

Ben Swann lays the smack down on the phonies:

[JohnThornton]

I have a number of concerns about Paul Ryan and how his proposals will effect the vulnerable and weak in society. 

Making medicare a voucher program is a bad idea.  That drives more money into business that have higher overhead, and therefore increases waste in the money used for health care.  It also puts a significant burden on people who can least afford it. 

Drastically reducing medicaid programs also hurts poor and vulnerable people like the disabled and children.

Cutting food stamp programs is also the wrong approach.

Paul Ryan does not support veterans programs as much as they should be supported.

Paul Ryan wants to cut student grants, and make student loans even more costly.  That is bad for long term higher education.

Paul Ryan is an opponent of contraception.  Restricting and hindering contraception will lead to more unplanned pregnancies, and more abortions.  So since I am a prolife person, I think being opposed to contraception is a wrong approach.  I think abortion is wrong in all but exceptional cases, but from what I have read, Paul Ryan opposes abortion even in cases, like ectopic pregnancies, where a mother's life is threatened. 

Paul Ryan did not support laws to help women get equal pay for equal work.  That too is a wrong approach. 

Those are some of my concerns with Paul Ryan's positions. 

[Harrisburgia]

I'm fine with reducing the size of the federal government.  I'm just tired of "born-again" conservatives who bank on American Amnesia every time it's election time.

[winnar]

Fox is going to assassinate Ben Swan.

[JohnThornton]

I'm fine with reducing the size of the federal government.  I'm just tired of "born-again" conservatives who bank on American Amnesia every time it's election time.

Here is someone, Tad DeHaven, from the Cato Institute on Paul Ryan.

"Yet there is no way I would have cast the votes in Congress that Paul Ryan has through the years. Ryan voted for TARP, the auto bailouts, No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Bush stimulus, the Patriot Act, and military adventurism abroad." 

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/16/paul-ryan-big-government-conservative/#ixzz23kpUl9U1

From the Republican Liberty Caucus:

"Possibly of even greater concern is Ryan’s ongoing record of absolute irresponsibility in the area of civil liberties.  Since 2010 Ryan has been on the wrong side of almost every important vote involving basic Constitutionally protected rights.  He voted to extend the PATRIOT Act, for CISPA, for DOMA, for the NDAA (three times), to expand the Department of Homeland Security, to extend troop commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and to give the President the power to appoint department heads without Senatorial approval.  At a time when more and more Republicans are waking up to the threat of expanded government power to operate without observing traditional limits on their police power these votes are a major concern."

http://www.bcpublicrecord.com/?p=2779

[Harrisburgia]

Here is someone, Tad DeHaven, from the Cato Institute on Paul Ryan.

"Yet there is no way I would have cast the votes in Congress that Paul Ryan has through the years. Ryan voted for TARP, the auto bailouts, No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Bush stimulus, the Patriot Act, and military adventurism abroad." 

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/16/paul-ryan-big-government-conservative/#ixzz23kpUl9U1

From the Republican Liberty Caucus:

"Possibly of even greater concern is Ryan’s ongoing record of absolute irresponsibility in the area of civil liberties.  Since 2010 Ryan has been on the wrong side of almost every important vote involving basic Constitutionally protected rights.  He voted to extend the PATRIOT Act, for CISPA, for DOMA, for the NDAA (three times), to expand the Department of Homeland Security, to extend troop commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and to give the President the power to appoint department heads without Senatorial approval.  At a time when more and more Republicans are waking up to the threat of expanded government power to operate without observing traditional limits on their police power these votes are a major concern."

http://www.bcpublicrecord.com/?p=277

Sounds like he's got your vote!

[JohnThornton]

Sounds like he's got your vote!

I do not understand why you would say that. 

[Harrisburgia]

I do not understand why you would say that.

Then you literally have no sense of humor.  Crack a smile tough guy.

[JohnThornton]

Then you literally have no sense of humor.  Crack a smile tough guy.

Sorry I missed the humor. 

[BladeRunner]

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[rufusx]

A better question: Why Paul Ryan?

He's not Joe Biden.

O-oh - seems the boy economics/finance genius "forgot" to include the $5MM or so he and his wife inherited on his last two congressional financial disclosures.

Busted: Paul Ryan Left $1-5 Million Trust Off Disclosure Forms Until He Was Vetted

As he was being vetted, Mr. Ryan pulled a Romney and retroactively amended his disclosures on June 6, 2012 in order to include one of the couple’s largest assets — the $1-5 million income producing trust Janna Ryan inherited from her mother.
 
The omission was classified as an “inadvertent omission.” The average American probably couldn’t justify forgetting about a trust earning, according to USA Today, “between $15,001 and $50,000 in 2010, and between $100,001 and $1 million last year.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-08-15/paul-ryan-finances-reports/57078160/1?csp=Dailybriefing

[JohnThornton]

As Lawrence O'Donnell states, "Image what Fox News would say about a politician who had a life long infatuation with a Russian atheist."

[SDGrad]

O-oh - seems the boy economics/finance genius "forgot" to include the $5MM or so he and his wife inherited on his last two congressional financial disclosures.

Busted: Paul Ryan Left $1-5 Million Trust Off Disclosure Forms Until He Was Vetted

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-08-15/paul-ryan-finances-reports/57078160/1?csp=Dailybriefing

Biden still forgets what century he is in.

[DrPangloss]

Obama still hasn't explained his infatuation with that German atheist guy.

[rufusx]

Biden still forgets what century he is in.

I don't believe that the Dem Party has ever held Biden out as it's #1 guy on history the way the Repubs have held Ryan out as their go-to "money guy".

[SDGrad]

I don't believe that the Dem Party has ever held Biden out as it's #1 guy on history the way the Repubs have held Ryan out as their go-to "money guy".

Shows what little faith the dems have in their pathetic candidates. They put a white placeholder next to a black man and the placeholder turns out to be borderline retarded. He even makes Bush look good.

[winnar]

I don't believe that the Dem Party has ever held Biden out as it's #1 guy on history the way the Repubs have held Ryan out as their go-to "money guy".

Meh... republicans needed something new. Mittens was really going nowhere.

[MyThots]

Shows what little faith the dems have in their pathetic candidates. They put a white placeholder next to a black man and the placeholder turns out to be borderline retarded. He even makes Bush look good.

"Typical Republican," unable express an opinion without the use of name-calling.

[WestRiverRat]

Ryan must be doing something the Democrats in Wisconsin like, he keeps getting elected as a Republican in a die hard Democrat district. His district went 65% for Obama after all.

If he can garner that much bipartisan support maybe he is what we need.

[rufusx]

Ryan must be doing something the Democrats in Wisconsin like, he keeps getting elected as a Republican in a die hard Democrat district. His district went 65% for Obama after all.

If he can garner that much bipartisan support maybe he is what we need.

He doesn't seem very confident in his chances as he is is still also running for his House seat (back up plan).

And calling it a "diehard Democrat" district is entirely false.  Since 1893, Wisconsin 1 has only had a Dem. rep for 10 years.  I'd say that makes it a die-hard Rep district by more than 10:1 - wouldn't you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin's_1st_congressional_district 

[DrPangloss]

He doesn't seem very confident in his chances as he is is still also running for his House seat (back up plan).

And calling it a "diehard Democrat" district is entirely false.  Since 1893, Wisconsin 1 has only had a Dem. rep for 10 years.  I'd say that makes it a die-hard Rep district by more than 100:1 - wouldn't you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin's_1st_congressional_district

Joe Biden ran for the Senate and for Vice President in 2008. So what's your point?

[rufusx]

Joe Biden ran for the Senate and for Vice President in 2008. So what's your point?

That he hasn't won his congressional seat beacuse he's doing a great job of satisfying a "die hard Democrat" constitutancy (insunuating that he works across the aisle).  That in fact - he holds what is practically a GUARANTEED Repub seat in Wisconsin.  Job security - in the only real job he's ever held.

And your point is.....? 
He's just like Biden??? 
Good job Pangloss - or was it a gaffe?

[DrPangloss]

That he hasn't won his congressional seat beacuse he's doing a great job of satisfying a "die hard Democrat" constitutancy (insunuating that he works across the aisle).  That in fact - he holds what is practically a GUARANTEED Repub seat in Wisconsin.  Job security - in the only real job he's ever held.

And your point is.....? 
He's just like Biden??? 
Good job Pangloss - or was it a gaffe?

Since Wisconsin doesn't break down voter registrations by party affiliation how can you claim that the 1st Congressional District is a guaranteed Republican seat? A district by the way that Les Aspin, a Dem, had a virtual lock on for 22 years and that Obama won in '08.

My point about Biden was that according to your logic Biden wasn't very confident either since he was running for Senate and Vice President at the same time. I guess the same could be said about Joe Lieberman who also ran for Senate and VP simultaneously in 2000.  I'll give you a 7.5 for your creative spin. Still crude in the execution though. Work on it.

[JohnThornton]

Here is another reason to be concerned about the effects of Paul Ryan's agenda.

"Ryan's budget, starting in 2013—that's right, next year—through 2022 would cut $1.4 trillion from Medicaid, the government's health insurance program that primarily serves low-income individuals. The nonpartisan, universally respected Congressional Budget Office calculates that a minimum of 14 million people would be dropped from the program. This doesn't include the 11 million people who would be dropped from Medicaid if the Romney-Ryan plan to repeal health care reform is implemented.  Folks who would be dropped from Medicaid are almost inevitably going to be incapable of getting private insurance, so the vast majority would go without health insurance at all. Without health insurance, they will get vastly inferior health care, usually with little preventive care"

http://www.slate.com/blogs/spitzer/2012/08/17/ryan_s_medicaid_plan_is_worse_than_his_medicare_plan_25_million_would_lose_coverage_.html

[BladeRunner]

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