If you are
expecting a snappy, smarmy, bumper sticker-friendly, long-on-spin, short-on-fact,
Super Pac ad in the few sentences below, let me tell you that there is a new
season of Dancing With The Stars which promises non-stop, zany antics, and I
respectfully suggest that you surf away from my little post now, before that
vague twinge of discomfort you already feel at Mitt Romney’s V.P. pick mutates
into a full-fledged viral onslaught, complete with lost lunches, aches, pains,
and definitely dizziness.
If you are
wondering where I got my intel for this piece, I got most of it from the New York Times. I offer no apologies
here. I am sick and tired of just about every other media outlet, as I find
that most sources on both the left and the right cannot seem to stop pandering
to the baser instincts of their reader/viewer base. Since the Times has often
as not offered inconvenient truths that make even me want to r.u.n.n.o.f.t and
dance with this or that b-list celebrity and/or disgraced convicted felon, I
have come to trust it as a reliable source.
Paul Ryan
has been in Congress for 14 years. Coincidentally, Mitt Romney has been running
for president during those same 14 years. As you might have heard by now, Mitt
Romney really, really, REALLY wants
to be president and will say/do just about anything to get elected. But, because
he has talked and talked and yet failed to make the cut for the last 14 years,
he has developed a rather mind- numbing modus operandi that involves, uh, modifications of just about all of his positions on, uh, every issue known to
humanity.
I am telling you this, because Mitt has thus far, wholeheartedly endorsed
what has become known as the “Roadmap for America’s Future” or more simply put,
the Ryan Plan, the architect of which
just happens to be Mitt’s new running mate. Every Republican in the U.S. House
voted for Ryan’s Plan, but Mitt could
very well modify his mind tomorrow
about last month’s “unequivocal” support for what Newt Gingrich called
right-wing social engineering, so I am forced to write quickly, before Mitt can
Etch the Sketch again. Okay, on to the short list I promised you:
1.
20% tax cut across the board and, only two
tax tiers, no more tax loopholes, and all of this without adding to the deficit.
Yay! Freedom! Liberty! Don’t tread on my yellow snake flag! Oh, but there are a
couple of problems with this part of Ryan’s
Plan. When the independent policy folks at the Tax Policy Center and the
Urban Institute actually crunched the numbers and factored in the deductions
that middle income families currently enjoy, it turned out that the richest 5%
would make out like bandits, and the lower 95% would end up with a net tax
increase. The average family would pay about $2,000 more in taxes so
millionaires could buy new Bentleys. Oh,
and this tax reform does nothing to
raise a dime in revenue.
2.
Medicare Coupons. Yes, coupons. Any
citizen currently under 55 can, once they turn 65, take their coupon to the
nearest trusted private health insurance company (hee, hee, hee! haw, haw! snicker, snicker!) and theoretically buy private
insurance which would take the gummint completely out of the picture. Sounds
very bold until you learn that by
2022, elderly coupon recipients would pay an average of about $6,400 more per
year than they do now under Medicare, because the Ryan Plan does absolutely zilch to curb the rapidly rising costs of
insurance and health care.
3.
Repeal Obamacare. Awright! Oh, wait.
So all of those provisions in the Affordable Health Care Act that keep
insurance companies honest would be gone AND we get a lousy coupon to buy
private insurance? So we are back to denials for pre-existing conditions, spiraling
costs, limits on yearly/annual claims and cancellations if/when we get sick, AND
we get to pay $6,400 more?
4.
Privatize Social Security. Yes, Ryan
wants us to give all the money from our payroll tax deductions to the very same
clowns on Wall Street who gambled with our money (Muppet money they call it) at
the track and lost. Oh right, let’s all entrust our only safety net to the
psychopaths who created the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression
and then lied to Congress about it. Do I really need to say more here?
5. Get
rid of all those “job killing” regulations. Yes, let’s let Wall Street
hedge fund managers do exactly what they please with our savings, health care,
and Social Security. All Part of Ryan’s
Plan.
6.
Deep cuts to agriculture, education, transportation,
science and much more! But don’t worry. Ryan would let the military
budget rise with inflation, so mega-corps like Raytheon, Blackwater (changed
name to XE, then Academi, or something else really spy-like), and Dick Cheney’s
own Halliburton will not feel shortchanged.
7.
Okay, so with all these cuts/slashes/
privatizations but no new revenue, how in the world does the Ryan/Romney Plan,
plan to balance the budget? Ryan’s idea is that, in 30 years or so,
money will trickle down from all that unfettered economic growth and eventually
balance things out. Yes, Trickle Down
Economics again. I am not kidding and he isn’t either.
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