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Friday, October 15, 2010

Fire Paul Ryan Now - Before It's Too Late!

It's no secret that Congressman Paul Ryan's "Roadmap" will dismantle Social Security and Medicare, restrict affordable access to health care, slash taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and raise taxes on working middle class families. In fact, Ryan's privatization plan would cut Medicare by 76% and reduce Social Security to levels not seen in the U.S. since the time of when nearly half of all seniors lived in poverty. These projections are considered a best case scenario under his proposal.

Ryan you might also recall, is the republican who has demonized nearly every aspect of the new health care plan ironically on the cuts and shortages he claims the plan will impose on the system. Never mind that if Ryan's plan took into effect, the solvency and promise of the system would be a mere afterthought since it would be the middle-class - our babies, children, seniors, mothers, fathers and the elderly who would collapse from the roadmap's violent cuts and launch the private American health system into an inflationary seizure. Only the extremely wealthy - Ryan's base - will afford health care.

Sadly, as a black mark on Ryan the person, he is also deliberately using our genuine concern for the national debt as an emotional wedge against Social Security, Medicare and Obama, a national debt that has accumulated over the last decade largely due to wrong-headed tax cut policies during major war time expenditures and GOP-led pork spending -- all under his rubber stamp. It's time to pay the piper but instead, Ryan's ideas amount to a collective defense for lifting the nation's debt burden from the wealthy.

The funny part here is, Ryan, like many republicans and their enabling media, has been able to use their own distortions of the newly minted health care plan as a convincing battering ram against democrats while insisting that his own slash and burn plan is not representative of the GOP's official position. Ryan gets the best of both worlds while his district constituents are falsely led to believe he's holding the answers to our fiscal problems. He most definitely does not and informed citizens and legislators know it.

In fact, it's quite the opposite so much that he's doing all he can to make sure the incoming class of Republican House members are indoctrinated with his "roadmap" scheme.
Excerpt:
In an interview with the National Review, Ryan said he'd attempt to win over new GOP members with the help of a freshly minted, fully updated version of the Roadmap. "What we need to do is quickly bring them up to speed," Ryan said, adding that "dozens" of House candidates have privately confided in him that they support the plan.

"Reinforcements are coming," he said.
Ryan is not concerned about his district's plight or working together, his main concern at the moment is whether his roadmap will garner more supporters after this election. Every republican house candidate on the election trail should be confronted and asked whether they are the ones who privately confided in Ryan that they support his Social Security privatization and Medicare killing plan. This should be question number one in any public debate or media appearance.

At the same time, I blame the Democratic Party for not pouring money and bodies into a major effort to defeat Paul Ryan during the past several election cycles, but I also don't expect the democratic party now to be held responsible for letting Ryan's future shock manifesto gain momentum - I blame us.

I also realize what I'm writing here isn't new information, but if republicans are rehired in November, this election will be used as a victory referendum against Progressives and as a mandate for Ryan to continue his crusade against the middle-class worker. They must be stopped.

The choice this November is clear. If you vote for Paul Ryan, you will be casting a vote to destroy Social Security, Medicare and the American dream of a secure and achievable retirement. That is straight up. On top of all the unemployment, slashed wages, cut benefits, outsourcing of jobs, foreclosures, rising personal debt, declining net worth and property values, stock market volatility and stolen private pension accounts, you'll be able to chuck it all because - by voting for Paul Ryan you will be voting to destroy the only and last salvation to keep your head above water. The economics of suicide will begin to look more promising than the struggles imposed under Ryan's plan. I know that sounds over the top but there is no other way to message my sincere intuition and distrust towards Ryan's wrong-headed roadmap.

Of course he doesn't care what a single blogger writes, what you think or what his constituents think - he's marching to his own ideological drumbeat. I also realize with the way our economy is going that some people don't need much more to push them over the edge to kill themselves. This isn't scare talk, fear-mongering or meant to push anyone to that point. It's just the way it is.

I admit, Congressman Ryan has a huge messaging advantage over a backwater blog such as this, over other citizen media initiatives or the democratic candidate challenging him for the district. His choreographed appearances on Fox Cable News along with his highly visible role as a U.S. House member obviously gives him the upper hand, especially since his supporters own and operate the biggest and loudest megaphones. There's even a good chance that after a blog posting such as this, Ryan's corporate sponsors might dump another hundred grand into his campaign chest just for the spite. Fundamental Americans must not let any of that change what's really at stake.

No other district of voters in America holds as much importance for the survival of Social Security, Medicare and inevitably our country more than the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin. If Ryan wins another election -- the point of no return will inch ever closer. There is no good reason or excuse to re-elect Paul Ryan.

Yet ironically, the fate of our country is in our hands - not Ryan's. I don't think I could emphasize that enough. This could be historic. From a humble citizen to all of my readers and your families and all your friends - for the sake of yourselves, your children, your grandchildren's future and mine, our country and our souls, I implore you to fire Paul Ryan on November 2nd while we still have the chance to do so.

This posting is a direct shout-out to any of Ryan's supporters including the congressman himself to step up in this discussion as grown-ups and challenge any of my assertions and criticisms in simple terms so everyone can understand. Enlighten me.

Don't tell me to come up with competing ideas - Social Security, Medicare and our progressive tax system IS the American idea. Your roadmap is in opposition to that idea - it's not the other way around. Don't point me to your Roadmap for answers, I can recite your map back to you in several different keys. Don't pull numbers from the CBO or cut-and-paste from other web pages - just plain old common sense English right off the top will do. Of course I don't expect a serious response in any way or fashion, but I KNOW YOU READ ME CONGRESSMAN - I KNOW YOU HEAR ME.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

But I think you are missing the point that, in their current form, we can no longer afford these programs. That's just the simple reality.

Lou Kaye said...

If America cannot afford health care - why blame Medicare? If America cannot afford to retire - why blame Social Security? The idea that we can no longer afford these programs is not the reality - it is a false narrative. When you can no longer afford to buy the expensive car - you don't dismantle the automobile or stop driving - you make do with the new reality, you drive a cheaper model.

The high cost of health care is crushing the country, our ability to compete for jobs and our entitlements.

cbell23 said...

This is my dream...someone convinces John Dickert and Jim Kreuser to have highly publicized primary during the next cycle under the theme - We Have Had Enough of Paul Ryan (or something like that). They can raise the money.

The big question is...will the DCCC get behind the winner?

Democurmudgeon said...

Remember his comment, completely forgotten and unnoticed by the media:

"Ryan, in an interview with Klein, argues that the programs are growing themselves into extinction, and his plan at least gives seniors the choice to choose the care they receive.

Said Ryan: "Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?"

It's still a stunning statement, and a horrific spot to put any family in.

http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2010/02/rep-paul-ryan-on-his-medicare-rationing.html

Lou Kaye said...

"Ryan, in an interview with Klein, argues that the programs are growing themselves into extinction, and his plan at least gives seniors the choice to choose the care they receive."

That statement in a nutshell best describes Ryan's and the first commenter's backwards perspective of the problem.

I would argue that the government-run plans are now merely extensions of previously failed and unaffordable private market insurance based payment options AND that those private insurance based payment options originally sprung out in response to the core service's pricing themselves into extinction.

Free market health care core service and product costs are so unaffordable that even the insurance is unaffordable. Government becomes the easy scapegoat since there are no labor unions to blame for this one.

Ryan tackles this with individual government subsidies, rationing and tinkering around the edges i.e., tort reform, interstate commerce reforms, when huge cuts in core service costs must happen instead. Instead of placing the blame where it should be and focusing on the unaffordability of the core services, Ryan finds added convenience for his ideology by blaming the government's "affordability" programs for the national debt.

Anonymous said...

Social Security needs to end. The younger generations will never see a dollar of it, and are the ones that are going to be told they have to pay the most into it. When a leg is rotting, you can do your best to treat it and in prime conditions you can cure it. But when you are in a time crunch or in crappy conditions, you need to cut it off to live.

Ryan's plan is what many people have cried for. Uniform taxes of 250% more for individuals making over $50,000 and lower taxes for all making under that. Did you notice that in the plan you are currently knocking?

How about the fact that all the money set aside from the stimulus that hasn't been spent and that we don't have gets rescinded. I don't see you guys discussing that here. That's also in this bill.

This bill is soooooo much more than what you guys are discussing here. And if passed has sooooo much possibility.

Though I appreciate this is your blog, and your view points. I think you are gunning for the wrong politician in Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan and Russ Feingold are a few of the best America has to offer in D.C. right now. Both make me a bit prouder to be from Wisconsin.

Move on. Point out more flaws with the Gazette. Those are valid points. But attacking a Congressman that is actually using his brain and working towards viable solutions is just dumb.

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