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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