Paul Ryan's Scary Vision for America

August 30, 2012 RSS Feed Print

The GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan gives a nice speech. Wednesday night he demonstrated his capacity to be the attack dog that Mitt Romney will not cage on the top of his car. Ryan will be free to beat the crap out of Barack Obama anytime and anyplace.

Ryan's speech was long on pious-sounding generalities but short of specifics. It's not surprising that he didn't go into the specifics of his vision which are in his budget plan. The Ryan and Romney budget lacks any compassion for the elderly, infirm, and poor. The convention featured a "We Built This" theme night, which should have been an "Every Man for Himself" night, or even a "Women and Children Last" night.

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The Ryan budget eliminates healthcare reform. Obamacare proves that Obama cares about the health and well-being of Americans and the GOP ticket doesn't. Ryan said last night that he would undo the Affordable Care Act. Undoing the Affordable Care Act would undo the provisions of the new law that protect sick and injured Americans from predatory insurance companies. Repealing the Affordable Care Act means going back to the bad old days when the companies could deny benefits to the people who had been paying high-priced premiums for years.

Representative Ryan would convert Medicare into a private voucher program that would provide about $6,000 of insurance coverage a year to the elderly for healthcare expenses. If a senior suffers from cancer, six grand a year won't cover much of the treatment the elder needs to survive. After $6,000, the victims of cancer and other serious illnesses are on their own.

Wednesday evening, the vice presidential nominee also announced that the GOP would stand up for future generations. Ryan, however, did not mention that his budget makes severe cuts in aid for pre-natal care and school lunches for poor kids. These cuts threaten the lives of future generations

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Ryan talks about the need to make cuts to balance the federal budget, which is fine. But if he really wanted to cut federal spending he would eliminate tax cuts for bankers and billionaires and the $4 billion annual tax break for Big Oil. He would also eliminate the tax breaks for corporate jetsetters who fly the friendly skies on federal freebies.

Paul Ryan faced a personal tragedy when he was 16 and his father died. The future congressman used his father's Social Security Survivors benefits to fund his college education, which was his path to success. But Ryan wants to kill the program that helped him and would help future generations in the same way. Teenagers should have the same opportunity to build their shattered lives with federal assistance that Ryan did.