Paul Ryan. Really ?

Duane Campbell

We have often argued here that the election of 2012 is critical.  As voters  we have a  major choice. Do we follow the Republican model of  continuing the current Depression, cut taxes for the rich, and cut programs for the working families?  Do we follow the lead of Bain Capital and Casino Capitalism ?  Or, do we invest in working America and put people to work ?  Do we insist that the government hire teachers, police officers, and invest in the future.

That choice has become even clearer with the selection of Paul Ryan as the Vice President candidate on the Republican ticket.

John Nichols, a progressive journalists , was the keynote speaker at an event we conducted on the media in 2002, writes from Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin. 

He says of Ryan, “ The hyper-ambitious political careerist—who has spent his entire adult life as a Congressional aide, think-tank hanger-on and House member. Or, to be more precise, a hypocritical big spender—at least when Wall Street, the insurance industry and the military-industrial complex call.

Ryan has been a steady voter for unwise bailouts of big banks, unfunded mandates and unnecessary wars. Few members of Congress have run up such very big tabs while doing so little to figure out how to pay the piper. How has Ryan gotten away with his fool-most-of-the-people-most-of-the-time politics?”

Most of all, Paul Ryan is the author and primary advocate of the Ryan Budget, the Republican plan to cut the government.  We should judge he and Mitt Romney from this plan.

It was after all  the bankers and the finance companies that created our current economic crisis- what Paul Krugman calls this Depression. As shown in dozens of prior posts, they looted the economy.  Paul Ryan thinks that the economy in crisis and  the cost for bailing our Wall Street should be paid by cutting Medicare for the elderly, cutting Pell Grants for students, cutting food stamps for the poor, and so on.

Did the elderly, the pensioners, the students and the unemployed create this crisis?  No.  Then, why should we pay for it.  Why should we bail out the rich while taking from the poor?

Ryan in his budget, and Romney who has endorsed the Ryan budget propose major cuts to our social safety net for the elderly, children and the poor. Why?  To pay for massive additional tax cuts for the rich and the corporations.

That is what is at stake in this election. 

Duane Campbell

For a detailed discussion of strategy see Bill Fletcher and Carl Davidson,
here http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/2012-elections-have-little-do-obamas-record-which-why-we-are-voting-him?page=0%2C9&paging=off

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