Does Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s VP pick really scare me? Should he scare you?

Yes, but no. America, as a democracy, needs and welcomes healthy debate. And campaigns are a wonderful, powerful, though cash-slurred debate on a national scale.

Still, he’s an extreme candidate—a Tea Partier, friend to the Koch Bros, and no friend to you or me—unless you’re really, really, really rich and don’t care about other Americans, much. ~ ed.

Paul Ryan’s budget would create the “largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history.” ~ New York Magazine.

“What policies turned Clinton-era surpluses into Bush-era deficits? In large part, two tax cuts, two wars and a massive prescription drug benefit, and Ryan voted for all of them.” ~ Washington Post. “…He also voted for TARP, by the way…”

10 Funny Things:

1. Ryan is a young, visionary leader for the Republicans. His vision? Deep cuts in Medicare and Social Security, which insure more than 100 million people and whose costs account for more than one-fifth of the federal budget. Deep cuts in food stamps. “More than three-fifths of the cuts proposed by Mr. Ryan, and eagerly accepted by the Tea Party-driven House, come from programs for low-income Americans.” Deep cuts in student loans. Deep cuts in job training for the unemployed. Deep cuts in mass transit and infrastructure—roads, bridges…the foundation of the US as a first world country. Deep cuts in employee health care and worker’s comp. Deep cuts in everything from fire fighting to air traffic control. This is no hyperbole.

2. “All of this will be accompanied…by even greater tax giveaways to the rich, and extravagant benefits to powerful military contractors. Business leaders will be granted their wish for severely diminished watchdogs over the environment, mine safety and food quality.”

3. He was a longtime, huge fan of Ayn Rand (until he, belatedly, realized she was an atheist).

4. Despite being Big Business’ best friend, and an Ayn Rand/1% kinda guy, Mr. Ryan has spent nearly his entire career in Washington either in or around the federal government. He has no foreign policy experience and has not spent significant time in the private sector.

5.“This is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill — but wasn’t paid for.”~ President Obama.

6. “Based on his Congressional voting record...the statistical system DW-Nominate evaluates him as being roughly as conservative as Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota…by these measures, Mr. Ryan is the most conservative Republican member of Congress to be picked for the vice-presidential slot since at least 1900. ” ~ NY Times.

7. All this:

• Rated 13% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
• Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
• Rated 36% by NAACP, indicating a mixed record on affirmative-action. (Dec 2006)
• Rated 8% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
  • Rated 30% by CURE, indicating anti-rehabilitation crime votes. (Dec 2000)
  • Rated 0% by the CAF, indicating opposition to energy independence. (Dec 2006)
  • Rated -3 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
  • Rated 11% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)
  • Rated 0% by the AU, indicating opposition to church-state separation. (Dec 2006)
  • Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)

“…wants federal ban on same sex marriage,
supported patriot act,
opposes embryonic stem cell research,
opposes contraception funding,
opposes hate crime laws,
wanted constitutional amendment banning flag desecration,
supports expanding oil drilling,
opposes funding for any renewable energy,
opposes regulation of greenhouse gasses,
opposes preserving habitats for endangered species,
supports line veto,
supports warrantless wiretaps,
opposes civil oversight on surveillance,
supports “neverending” war on terror…”

8. The irony, it burns: Paul Ryan, the Republican congressman who proposed a budget to gut social programs, collected social security benefits until he was 18 years old and saved it for his college education (politicususa.com)

““Ryan’s father died when Paul was only 16. Using the Social Security survivors benefits he received until his 18th birthday, he paid for his education at Miami University in Ohio…” (usnews.com)

“…since his dad died when he was young, he collected Social Security and used it to go to college where he was groomed by a conservative professor to use his family’s money and name recognition to go basically straight from college into politics. Amazingly hypocritical for the guy who wants to take my social security away…” ~ Reddit.

9. This: “Paul Ryan’s senior poll from a yearbook at Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville, Wisconsin.”

10. Scariest of all? Mitt slipped in his unveiling this morning, announcing that Ryan was “America’s next President.” It’s a Freudian slip with real possibilities.