Romney supposedly chose Paul Ryan as his running mate partly because of his persona of boldness and forthrightness about budget matters. The exact opposite of Romney's obscure and obdurate persona.
But in less than a week, Ryan has begun attacking his own positions -- and undermining the very quality that made him shine.
The issue of the moment is Medicare. The "Ryan budget" continues the same savings of $716 billion that ObamaCare does -- achieved by eliminating the waste, fraud, and abuse in the Bush-backed boondoggle of Medicare Advantage plans. It does not cut benefits to seniors; it makes reforms and reduces unnecessary expenses on the suppliers' side.
But now Ryan has chimed in with Romney, decrying the savings as Obama's "gutting Medicare," implying that he's cutting $700 billion from seniors' benefits, then bragging that he and Romney will rescue Medicare and "preserve it for future generations."
They are actually trying the audacious strategy of grabbing the "save Medicare" when, in fact, they would do the exact opposite and "end Medicare as we know it." The Obama plan saves it for seniors, both now and later. Ryan's plan saves it for now by not applying the vouchers to anyone over 55 -- and saves no money for now; but it does affect the coverage for seniors in the future. They will get vouchers to buy private insurance, but the amount will not keep up with rising costs, so it will begin to cost seniors more and more out of their own pockets. They're hoping it's too complicated for people to understand their con game and just believe their rhetoric.
Their rhetoric is outright lying.
Romney has chosen a running mate for certain qualities -- honesty and integrity -- and then forced him to change those qualities. Isn't this exactly what people don't like about Romney? His chameleon-ness?
Well, I guess that's good for the Democrats -- as long as the people see through it and don't get fooled by the massive false advertising the GOP-favoring SuperPACs will be able to pay for.
Ralph
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Not only has Ryan been forced to flip-flop like Romney, now he's already picked up their bad habit of lying.
ReplyDeleteToday he blamed the closing of a manufacturing plant in his district on Obama -- "one of the reasons was $4 a gallon gasoline; it cost jobs."
The problem with this: the plant closed during George W. Bush's presidency.