Those of you who are regular readers of Blogging Blue may remember the “Thirteen Gaffes of Tommy,” which chronicled a baker’s dozen of the best gaffes from former governor (and current U.S. Senate candidate) Tommy Thompson.
As I’ve been pondering Mitt Romney’s choice of Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate, I’ve come to the realization Rep. Ryan has said and done a lot of really really stupid things during his career as a politician, so what better way to chronicle Rep. Ryan’s career as a professional moocher and all-around despicable human being than with what I’m calling “Despicable Me” – Starring Paul Ryan.
- Paul Ryan is so uninterested in hearing what his constituents have to say to him that he actually charged a $15 admission fee to anyone who wanted to attend one of his town hall meetings.
- Though his proposed federal budget cuts a lot of discretionary spending, one program it didn’t cut was government subsidies to the oil industry. Not surprisingly, Paul Ryan’s family directly benefits from those very oil industry subsidies. Apparently government spending that benefits Paul Ryan and conservatives is good, but everything else should be cut, cut cut!
- While holding himself up as a fiscal conservative, let’s not forget that during his time in Congress Paul Ryan has been anything but a fiscal conservative.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the two main contributors to the massive increases in our budget deficits were President Bush’s high income tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 (which coincidentally enough Rep. Ryan voted in favor of) and defense spending. Together the Bush tax cuts and defense spending (which includes the war in Iraq, which Rep. Ryan voted for) account for 85% of the spending that has contributed to our increased budget deficits.
- Paul Ryan – and Mitt Romney for that matter – wants to make it harder for students to go to college, proposing in his budget plan to cut Pell Grant funding by $170 billion, resulting in more than 1 million students not being able to go to college.
- While Paul Ryan is fond of warning anyone who will listen that our country in in danger of becoming a “collectivist society overseen by a social-welfare state,” Ryan himself benefited directly from the Social Security system to help pay his way through college.
- Elitist Paul Ryan really loves to quaff $350 bottles of imported French wine with his lobbyist friends.
- While many conservatives are lauding Paul Ryan as an expert on all things budget-related (he’s Chairman of the House Budget Committee, after all), let’s not forget that once upon a time, Ryan actually said he “loves” Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, a plan that was widely discredited as being unserious and that would actually poor and middle class Americans.
- Ryan’s vaunted budget plan? According to economist Paul Krugman it’s essentially nothing more than tax cuts and a huge asterisk.
The plan is a big bunch of tax cuts, some specified spending cuts, basically for poor people, and then a huge magic asterisk which is supposed to turn into a deficit reduction plan, but, in fact, if you look what’s actually in it, it’s a deficit-increasing plan.
- Have I mentioned that Paul Ryan wants to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a coupon system? Under Ryan’s Medicare “reform” program, the current Medicare system would be replaced with subsidies to help retirees enroll in private health care plans. Notice the word “help,” which is certainly different than the guarantee of health care coverage that Medicare provides. Under Ryan’s plan seniors would be given a coupon and forced to find their own health care coverage, and if the coupon didn’t cover the cost of their coverage, those seniors would be forced to make up the difference. Talk about “throwing granny under the bus…”
Here’s what one constituent of Ryan’s thinks of his plans for Medicare.
- Paul Ryan really doesn’t understand his Catholicism very well. While Ryan loves to talk about how his views on government have been shaped by his religion, the Catholic Church of which Ryan is a member teaches that government and other agencies should be “dedicating the equipment, resources and energy so that the greatest number of people can have access” to health care.
- And last (but most certainly not least), Rep. Ryan laughs as a 71 year-old constituent is taken to the ground and then arrested by police at one of Ryan’s town hall meetings.
It takes a special brand of insensitivity and lack of regard to laugh while an elderly man is being forced to the ground and handcuffed, but apparently Paul Ryan gets his kicks out of seeing his elderly constituents get arrested.
A fine summation. My own thoughts on the matter are best expressed by Benjamin Franklin, who during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 captured the very essence of a potential Romney/Ryan regime and the consortium of dissemblers that will implant the Despicable Duo into stations, of which, they are most unfit:
“There are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has a great force in prompting men to action; but when united in the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall at the same time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it…
And of what kind are the men that will strive for this profitable pre-eminence through all the bustle of the cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of both parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passion and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves in your government and be your rulers.”
Paul Ryan is pure selfish greed.
Excellent quote from Ben Franklin. It certainly goes to show that very little ever changes in the affairs of humankind.
Regarding Romney choosing Ryan as his v.p., HOORAY! Let the light of day expose them for who they are. In this case 1 + 1 = 0. Zero concern for the fate of their constituents. Zero concern for the furtherance of evil in our society. Zero awareness of just how ridiculous they are to any sane onlooker. Zero concern for future generations. And, increasingly, nearly zero chances of being elected. (Barring voting machine fraud, that is.)
I wish I could call Paul Ryan the worst of the worst… that would actually give me hope. But he’s really damn close!
Sister Simone from the nuns on the bus called him out from the get go. Too bad these fake Catholics that support Ryan have closed their minds to real Catholics. She had him pegged all along.
djpat,
Right you are. The nuns on the bus and the U.S. Conference of Bishops are correct in their assessment of Ryan’s “budget” – it is immoral by any standard. This is what Bishop Gene Robinson had to say:
“The proposed Ryan budget takes a huge step toward immorality. Sacred texts for Christians, Jews, and Muslims all depict a God who judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in our society. By this measure, the Ryan budget robs the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable of the safety net so integral to their survival. By any measure of civility and regard for one’s neighbor it is an immoral disaster.”
Conservative ideology, from whence this budget comes, is altogether immoral and devoid of compassion but jammed thick with spiteful malevolence. Once again, Benjamin Franklin comes to mind for his unceasing benevolence and devotion to his community, his country, and to humanity. The following is an excerpt from one of Franklin’s last letters, written near to his deathbed. It was a response to the following posed Ezra Stiles, the president of Yale:
“As much as I know of Dr. Franklin, I have not an idea of his religious sentiments. I wish to know the opinion of my venerable friend concerning Jesus of Nazareth.”
This is how Franklin began his reply:
“Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That He governs it by His providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to Him is doing good to His other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.”
Ryan and Romney lack utterly Franklin’s love of humanity – that reverent love which was the source for Franklin’s benevolence in thought and action be it personal or through the vehicle of good government. Ryan and Romney stand in hideous, immoral contrast to Franklin, the U.S. Conference of Bishops, and the Nuns on the Bus.
The 2012 Conservative Ticket: Stockjobber and Lickspigot.
Stockjobber being the derogatory term for stockbrokers/bankers or one who deals solely with stockbrokers. Thomas Jefferson expressed noticeable disdain for stockjobbers. Lickspigot meaning a servile, obsequious parasite.
Hey everybody! Guess what? The RepubYUKANS are going to nominate as their president candidate terrorist supporter Willard Mitt Romney! Yes folks this low life Romney actually help make some land owners rich in El Salvador back when Romney was first starting Bain Capital. These landlords needed to make some money to hire a small army of terrorist to stop the peasants who wanted to protest about the way the rich made the workers no more than slaves for the rich. These rich land owners were fighting a revolution in El Salvador that was a lot more than a protest revolution. It was a killing revolution. These land owners who Romney made rich were hiring people and supplying them with guns so that they could kill the peasants that were protesting against the rich landowners. There was many many many killings done by these terrorist who were supplied money to do these killings by the rich landlords who got their money from Romney and Bain. Romney knew about these killings and knew that the terrorist were being hired by the land lords to do the killing. Romney even knew that family members of the investors were involved in the killing of peasants. The whole world knew about the killing of the peasants. It was on the news a lot. The terrorist even killed a Bishop that tried to speak up for the peasants. The killers and the investors who backed them would even openly brag about their killings when in Miami to do business with Romney. Yet Romney still continued to do business with these people as he made them richer over the many many years that Romney and Bain did business with them. This is the lowlife, Romney, that you Americans want to make your president! Now he made terrorist rich and you are going to turn to him for leadership which he will only use to make the rich richer and the rest of us poorer. Romney has shafted a lot of people over his life. Do you want to make America next? Voodoonomics, Romneynomics, Ryans budget plan, tax cuts for the rich, they all only help make the rich richer and the rest of us no better off. Wise up America, Romney is a money hustler! Read http://www.mybetteramericaplan.com to see many reasons why Romney, Ryan and the Republicans are bad for America in many ways.
Regarding your #4 to cut Pell grants, it appears he used Social Security funds to finance his college education.
http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-fanboy-paul-ryan-used-social-security-hammock-to-put-himself-through-college/
Yeah, that’s addressed in point #5.
Regarding #10, see “Mr. Ryan’s Cramped Vision” in NYT weekend editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/opinion/paul-ryans-cramped-vision.html
The editorial quoted from the Catholic Bishop’s letter of last April that: “Mr. Ryan’s budget ‘will hurt hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors, and workers who cannot find employment’…”
Ryan is some Catholic, heh?