Saturday, August 11, 2012

It's Ryan! Yippeee!

The Republicans are doubling down on their over-reach, and proving once again their inability to do real math.  Instead they do 'Republican Math'.

Ryan and his budget, his attempts to end medicare are a large part of why the Republican 2010 elected House has the WORST approval ratings and the HIGHEST disapproval ratings in the history of Congress.

Ryan and his budget and his attempts to end medicare are costing sitting Republicans who supported it, both in the House and in the Senate, their seats.  It has been true in special elections, it is true in the primaries.  Ryan and his ideas are an absolute albatross around the necks of the right.

Sure.....he's better than the popsie Palin, who lacked any substance whatsoever, and who couldn't be presidential on her best day as the person running as the understudy for that job.  But the same words are being said of Ryan that were said of her--- gives clarity to the ticket, generates excitement.

Yeah.......but probably NOT the clarity or excitement they want!  There's a phrase that is rapidly becoming a political kiss of death.  It will focus clarity on past political votes and policies, and generate more excitement pushing for R-money and Ryan to get detailed about their policies, and top push Mittens to show us the money -- the money he claims to have paid in Taxes that is.

Poor Mittens on R-money; he isn't doing at all well.  In swing states like Ohio they are trying to expand voting hours in Republican districts while reducing them in Democratic leaning districts.  The GOP and the Tea Partiers FEAR voters, whom they have badly disappointed.

Remember that promise of no culture wars, Jobs Jobs Jobs?  Apparently the Righties forgot it immediately, which makes sense since they were never sincere about that anyway. Instead they made war on women, war on reproductive rights,war on voting rights, war on everything but unemployment.  They caused our credit rating, nationally and in the states where they had any power, to go down down down.  

I couldn't be happier.  Mittens may appeal to the base that he has been unable to excite, but he will more definitively than ever alienate the majority of voters, who are NOT the Tea Party.  The choice of Paul Ryan will not only give Obama an advantage in the Presidential election, it will give the Democrats a leg up in the elections for House and Senate. 

12 comments:

  1. Hello Dog Gone,
    I am thinking the Republican Leadership is thinking, “As extreme to the right as Sarah Palin but just not as STUPID.” This is what they are pinning their hopes on for this election.

    I am hoping that the last segment of undecided Working Middle Class will be as dissatisfied with this choice as those of us who have a clearer thinking mindset.

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  2. OH Dog Gone,
    I truly hope you are right with this!! So much of our future quality of Working Middle Class Life depends on this election.

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  3. Ryan was notoriously unpopular at town halls in his own district after he promoted his budget that would end medicare. So long as he promotes the ideas for which he is famous, he won't be popular anywhere except with a few far right fringies.

    People of that age vote. I don't see why people just under the 55 years old now cut off would be happy with his ideas.

    Romney won in primaries by the votes of old rich white people. In every other demographic, other candidates who were running won. But he had enough turnout in that demographic, and the other candidates were singularly weak and extreme and uninspiring. (Nut Gingrich? Santorum? BACHMANN? Perry stoning out while giving speeches and making big gaffes?)

    What Romney has are a lot of really big donors, both directly and indirectly, like the Koch Brothers. This is THEIR choice for the White House.

    Grover Norquist famously said the only thing the Republican candidate needs is enough fingers to hold the pen to sign legislation. Even Palin had that -- and by the way, after she got her little knickers in a twist because the Press caught her being stupid, so she went rogue further PROVING she was not substantive, not smart or educated, do you think anyone will ever take her seriously for any political office ever again? I don't. Her big shiny bus touring 'vacation' (yeah, who takes a vacation with a special political message wrapped bus?)was a test ballon for her running for office again this cycle. I doubt she can even get into the GOP convention this time, unless Fox News sends her as media. Bachmann couldn't get a delegate slot until someone gave her their Ron Paul spot.

    If anyone could turn out support AGAINST Romney it would be Ryan. The Koch brothers had to spend millions to save Walker's ass in Wisconsin. They didn't save the legislature majority for the right.

    They are going to spend a lot of money, but I suspect it will be for nothing. And I would expect after this election cycle, that kind of Citizens United will bite the dust in Congress, because people across the spectrum are starting to wise up to the corruption of it.

    I think the extremism that the right turned out is over and done and on its way out. The Tea Party is a significantly spent force. Let us hope that is not also true of the Occupy Movement.

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  4. Dog- http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/sep/07/joe-biden/vice-president-joe-biden-says-rep-paul-ryans-budge/

    Have a good one.

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  5. The problem with cherry picking is that the org you love when it comes to dissing Biden is also the org you hate, fella.

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/14/national-rifle-association/barack-obama-coming-after-guns-under-radar-nra-say/

    and

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/jun/15/nra-right-obama-coming-our-guns/

    "Have a good one."? Yeah, you too.

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  6. Thanks Dem, those are entertaining, but in truth one lie does not excuse another.

    J.O.B. - here's the thing, if you make retirement planning a "voucher' system, some people won't do it. In fact, a LOT of people won't. That's why they came up with social security, we simply didn't want to have people lying around starving on the streets, so the most economical approach was to take a small amount from everyone, starting early, so that we could keep people from starving late. No one ever said Social Security Should be your only retirement program, lots of people are told to put money aside, but they don't, still.

    Now, let's look at Mediare. 75% of your medical expenses for your WHOLE life come (iirc) in the last six years of life. People, many people are currently DEVASTATED by medical costs prior to age 65. They simply don't have the money to pay for the exorbitant medical costs. Ryan's plan, instead of managing the cost side, essentially tells folks currently 55 and over to go to a private carrier. How does that fix anything at all? Private carriers charge far more in operating costs than does Medicare. For those under 55, well, it's participate voluntarily - you know, the same approach as they want (and we once had) for retirement planning. The upshot is, probably something like 80% or more of the folks WON'T participate, and without their participation, Medicare will fail, in 10 years given that people 55 today are 65 in ten years and so those behind them will have effectively ceased paying in at that point.

    So, while I deeply respect Politifact, I don't agree at all with their estimation of the impacts here. It will be the end of Medicare. If you make things voluntary, in this society where everyone is scrambling just to pay bills, they'll stop participating, or at least FAR more than enough will to make it unworkable. Insurance, not just Medicare, all insurance works by spreading risk, a risk pool, make the pool too small and it simply doesn't work. This is a "stealth" plan to kill off Medicare, just like Bush tried to make Social Security voluntary in 2004 - this will end Medicare, Biden is right - and Politifact is not.

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  7. J.O.B.,

    Just to be clear, this has been, just like making Social Security voluntary, part of the far right plan to kill the New Deal, for decades. Mr. Ryan's proposal isn't new, what's new is that the American people are apparently not aware of the impacts in ways which they have been previously.

    If you want to FIX something, go fix the cost side in medicine. We pay FAR more for drugs, for example, than any other place in the world. Why? Because we are SO friendly toward business that we refuse to do much at all regulate so-called "demand" industry, industry where people MUST have the service (like heat) to survive. There are regulations on testing and safety, but patents get extended for YEARS and YEARS. I take one prescription for a medicine issued a patent in 1988 (as I recall), that patent was supposed to expire in 2000, it has been extended for 14 years by the manufacturer making very VERY tiny changes, like the number of stripes on the capsule. That medicine cost $600/mo, while it's generic competitors cost $40. The drug industry claims our MUCH higher costs fund "research" but they spend 20 times as much on advertising as research, so it's not as if they aren't able to make drugs overseas, sell overseas, or god, how horrible, spend a bit less on Viagra advertisements. Instead, all of us pay to make them the most profitable (net margin) companies in the world and among the most profitable gross margin companies in the world. Those are the kinds of reforms that SHOULD happen.

    Instead, Ryan's budget would happily end one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in history, it would VASTLY escalate costs to seniors as they'd not have the protection of Medicare's negotiated rates, and so would pay FAR more to doctors, hospitals and the like. I understand medical practicioners prefer to be paid more by Medicare, but you take the lid off the costs of medicine for those 65 and over and you cannot, in your wildest dreams, imagine the impact - the number of bankruptcies probably will triple in the over 65 demographic, maybe more.

    Is that a solution to you?

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  8. Penigma:

    Those were not intended for pure entertainment. I notice a predilection on the part of folks like J.O.B. (y'know, gunzloonz) to be extremely selective in their use of SOME material from various sources to support their assertions--while simultaneously ignoring loads of contradictory information from the same source.

    Here's a hint, if your "primary source" is Politifacts then you're not spending enough time in your research.

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  9. love this:

    ““I am a conservative businessman,” Romney will say in Texas today, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks obtained by ABC News. “I have spent most of my life outside of politics, dealing with real problems in the real economy. Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don’t know how to get us out.”

    From here (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/08/mitt-romney-vs-rick-perry-in-texas-career-politicians-got-us-into-this-mess/.)

    So, he was agin’ Paulie Wingnuts before he was for him!

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  10. Pen- Thanks for sharing your thoughts, but the truth is I only put up that Politifact link to counter Dog's argument. She made one claim about Ryan wanting to end Medicare, which according to politifact, is not true. The truth is, I don't know how a voucher system would work, or save Medicare.

    Commie- Didn't know you had such a man crush on Biden. I do apologize for offending your delicate sensibilities. Bad mouthing Biden was not my intention. We can have a discussion on steroids in baseball if you would like.
    Since you brought it up, do you consider all gun owners Gunzloons, or whatever? Thanks for the links, but I won't even look at them. I'm pretty sure that I've stated on this blog, that I am not a member of the NRA. Why would I give a shit about any politifact findings regarding them. LOLOLOLOLOLLOLLOLOLOOL............... Have a good one Bud, and thanks for being a little more polite, not too hard is it?

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  11. Ryan wanted to end medicare.
    When that proved unpopular, he tried to simply end it for younger contributors to the system.
    Turning medicare into a voucher system is ending medicare; the voucher system is a phasing out of medicare from existence by providing decreasing amounts of medicare benefits to people.

    Additionally, Ryan is on the take in terms of receiving funding from big Pharm. He could have, as an actual servant of his constituents for example have voted FOR instead of against allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, as a large customer. He voted instead against that, and he voted to repeal the part of the ACA that closes the so-called doughnut hole.

    Ryan has attaced Medicare from every angle that could be used to reduce costs and increase benefits, and both versions of his plan cost seniors more for less. The fact check sites and the non-partisan CBO are all highly critical of Ryan's plan as 'saving' Medicare; it does the opposite.

    Ryan's plan has been pretty thoroughly debunked by economists as more redistribution of wealth to the wealthy - at our expense, and as NOT having numbers that add up -- in other words, Republican math again.

    So, I stand by my assertion. Ryan wants to defund Medicare, effectively if more gradually than he originally tried.

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  12. J.O.B.:

    IF this comment survives the editing process, which is doubtful, you will perhaps understand that being polite to mealymouthed liars from the reiKKKwing (hello,J.O.B. and a raft of other commenters from mikeb302000's blog) is not something I'm interested in doing.

    You brought up Biden, not me. You think I have a "man crush". Is that your little dig at me to insinuate that I'm gay? If so, then you're not just an asshole, but a cowardly asshole.


    This:

    "Since you brought it up, do you consider all gun owners Gunzloons, or whatever? Thanks for the links, but I won't even look at them. I'm pretty sure that I've stated on this blog, that I am not a member of the NRA. Why would I give a shit about any politifact findings regarding them. LOLOLOLOLOLLOLLOLOLOOL............... "

    means what? That you used a citation that you have no belief in, to buttress an argument? Well, that sorta makes you look like a moron. And what do I consider a gunzloon? Well that would be any person who thinks that gunz are more important than anything else that they think about--hello, Greg Camp and most of mikeb302000's commenters and their sockpuppets.

    So what if you're not a member of the NRA? You espouse just as much of teh burnin' stoopit at mikeb302000's as Greg Camp (although you lack his verbosity and fashion flair).

    This:

    "The truth is, I don't know how a voucher system would work, or save Medicare."

    in reply to dog gone's comment, reveals the depth of you apathetic indignorance.

    Paul Ryan is a lying, hypocritical scumbag. He is AGAINST social welfare programs--except of course when they benefit him. He managed to find it in his heart to accept the SSA's largesse after his father's death. That largesse was not spent on food for a starving family, no, his family was "getting by", he was a teen welfare queen. He took money that he didn't need to just meet the daily needs of life and saved it to pay for college. He's a fucking hypocrite.

    You want nice? Try telling the truth for a change.

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