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You are here: Home / Healthcare / Vouchercare / How do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mr. Death?

How do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mr. Death?

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Jim Newell summarizes Paul Ryan quite well:

A few things about Paul Ryan: He wants to end Medicare and give people (those who are 55 and younger at the time of passage) coupons to buy private insurance plans on the market instead. Those coupons would be explicitly designed not to keep up with medical inflation, ensuring seniors pay higher out-of-pocket costs each year until the market collapses.

He wants to convert Medicaid and food stamps into block grants sent to the states and sharply reduced levels. He wants to bring non-defense discretionary spending down to 3% of the federal budget. He wants toslash taxes on the wealthy, giving them an average 12.5% in additional after-tax income. The only reason his budgets haven’t said a word about privatizing or dramatically cutting benefits in Social Security is becausehis fellow congressmen demanded he not take that on in addition to everything else, at this point. He voted for the Iraq War, Medicare Part D, and TARP.

The Ryan Budget is not just about saving money. He thinks broad social spending programs are immoral in how they foster “dependency.” There’s no other reason to cut every modest discretionary program like that.

But he’s a bow hunter!

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    beltane

    Since the wealthy don’t pay taxes anyway there is no point in “slashing their taxes” in the first place.

    It is also delicious that Ryan is a devotee of Ayn Rand. If his budget becomes law the same forces that forced Rand to flee the Bolsheviks will eventually cause Rand’s American followers to be similarly hunted down.

  2. 2.

    Violet

    Did anyone else catch this from Ryan’s speech:

    My dad died when I was young. He was a good and decent man. I still remember a couple of things he would say that have really stuck with me. “Son you are either part of the problem or part of the solution.”
    __
    Regrettably, President Obama has become part of the problem,…and Mitt Romney is the solution.

    “Regrettably…Mitt Romney is the solution”? Really poor sentence construction. Yet another Freudian slip during this farcical VP announcement.

  3. 3.

    MattF

    I think it’s important to push the argument against Ryan into an argument against Romney. We now know where Romney stands on Medicare, Social Security, tax policy, food stamps et cetera. As a bonus, we also know that Romney takes advice from the WSJ editorial board and Bill Fucking Kristol. Not a pretty picture.

  6. 6.

    c u n d gulag

    Ryan “The Ripper:”
    “Here’s your annual Medicare voucher, Grandma. Don’t spend it all in one place!”
    *LAUGH*

  9. 9.

    beltane

    @MattF: Au contraire. As a Democrat I find it to be a pretty picture indeed when the enemy takes the advice of Bill Kristol.

  14. 14.

    bemused

    Did I just hear Wolf Blitzer say Ryan enjoys a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Blitzer then said. “I like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich myself, for what it’s worth”.
    I just love our intrepid, dedicated msm.

  15. 15.

    shortstop

    The 55-and-under bit is why I think Romney can still take Florida (though, of course, he’ll lose the election). There are plenty of seniors like my parents who care about the welfare of those behind them, but there seem to be plenty more who embrace the “I got mine; screw the younger generation and besides, black people are buying alcohol on food stamps” mentality.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @Violet:

    “Regrettably…Mitt Romney is the solution”? Really poor sentence construction. Yet another Freudian slip during this farcical VP announcement.

    Can we call that a ‘Freudian slap’?

  18. 18.

    greennotGreen

    He’s a bow hunter? The least humane method to kill animals for pleasure? Why am I not surprised?

  19. 19.

    Jay in Oregon

    I wonder: if Romney gets beaten up enough about his VP pick, do you think we can get him to flip-flop and choose someone else?

    Normally I wouldn’t even consider it…

  20. 20.

    elm

    @shortstop: It’s not hard to see that the 55-and-under part of Ryan’s plan is transparent divide-and-conquer.

    The Obama campaign can communicate the obvious fact that young people won’t want to continue paying for a Medicare system after Ryan takes their benefits away.

  23. 23.

    Felonious Wench

    God, my libertarian Texas redneck cousins are about to get insufferable. From Ron Paul to Paul Ryan. See how it trips off the tongue?

    However, my counterpoints will be enough to keep me in glee until the election. Older rednecks…”you willing to go to a voucher system for your hard-earned benefits?” Younger ones “I’m so glad he had Social Security when his father died so he can represent the anti-government position today for you.”

    Texas Liberals everywhere say “gracias, Mitt Romney!”

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    Well, that was fast:

    according to Romney internal talking points, Romney will not embrace the Ryan plan

    Edit: CNN posts the Romney talking points:

    1) Does this mean Mitt Romney is adopting the Paul Ryan plan?
    Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    @Omnes Omnibus: See my edit above. The Romneytronic apparently believes that they can separate Ryan from the Ryan Plan.

    The next few months are going to be hilarious.

  30. 30.

    amk

    Isn’t it weird that mittbot literally stepped off the stage after introducing voucher ryan (as the next president, no less, in another mittfail) ? Aren’t they both supposed to be hugging and waving to the crowd after the intro ?

  35. 35.

    Haydnseek

    @dmsilev: You’ve got to be shitting me, Mittens. You want this guy for VP, but you reject the one thing he’s known for. I mean, what the fuck!?!

  36. 36.

    kay

    @rikyrah:

    They have Ryan’s privatize social security plan in there.

    Expect A LOT of whining about unfairness from media
    and Republicans :)

  37. 37.

    Tripod

    From the RMoney talking points:

    Questions and Answers About The Romney/Ryan Ticket:

    1) Does this mean Mitt Romney is adopting the Paul Ryan plan?

    · Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.

    He’s already on record as supporting it. Flip, flop…..

    Romney is the epitome of bad leadership. Flapping in the breeze with no goals or plan, and with sycophants feeding him what he wants to hear that particular moment.

  39. 39.

    gbear

    @dmsilev:

    Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.

    Shorter: My plan will be the Ryan plan, but I’ll lie about it.

  43. 43.

    J

    Add to the excellent summary above the fact that, though allegedly justified as measures to counteract the deficit, Ryan’s budget plans would have the opposite effect. (See Paul Krugman et al.)

    I love the idea of replacing a ‘culture of dependency’ , i.e., a community of citizens governing themselves with a view to establishing justice and promoting the general welfare, with a culture of lickspittle sycophants like Paul Ryan at the beck and call of psychopathic rich narcissists.

  44. 44.

    redshirt

    @Tripod: I love it. Yet another box he’s cornered himself within.

    They have no room to move, other than raging hate and lies.

    Are hate and lies enough to win the Presidency? We shall see, of course, but I think most absolutely not.

  46. 46.

    schrodinger's cat

    Is Sully over the moon now? We know that he has a massive crush on Ryan. Has he started saying that Obama has to embrace the Bowles-Simpson plan again and again.

  47. 47.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @shortstop: The 55-and-under bit is why I think Romney can still take Florida

    Could be. It is, overall, a naked attempt to exploit a perceived Boomer prejudice against everyone younger than them. Which, come to think of it, isn’t the dumbest politics I’ve ever heard.

  48. 48.

    dmsilev

    @gbear:

    Shorter: My plan will be the Ryan plan, but I’ll lie about it.

    Actually, I think what it is is “My plan will be the Ryan plan but as my self-image is wrapped up in the alpha-dog CEO look, I have to take credit for everything so I’m going to pretend that there’s a meaningful difference”.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @dmsilev:

    Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.

    Call me crazy, but shouldn’t he be doing that as the nominee?

  55. 55.

    Mark S.

    Jesus, the reason the teabag brigade likes Ryan is because of his fucking budget plan. If Mitt’s going to neuter that, what was the point of picking him?

  56. 56.

    MikeJ

    @Baud: Just help him out with his campaign, ok? No questions about business, taxes, budgets, or plans for the future.

  57. 57.

    lgerard

    @MattF:

    I kind of disagree with this idea that Rmoney is bowing to the desires of the wingnut press…I think this developed the other way

    Rmoney wanted Ryan
    Wingnuts started media campaign about how Ryan was the “only possible good choice”
    Rmonay announces choice

  59. 59.

    Violet

    @shortstop:

    The 55-and-under bit is why I think Romney can still take Florida (though, of course, he’ll lose the election). There are plenty of seniors like my parents who care about the welfare of those behind them, but there seem to be plenty more who embrace the “I got mine; screw the younger generation and besides, black people are buying alcohol on food stamps” mentality.

    The Obama campaign just has to frame is along the lines of “Do you really think young voters will continue to fund your Social Security when they know they won’t be getting any of themselves?” People understand that concept. No, younger voters will not continue to pay and if there’s no money, there will be no Social Security and Medicare. I think even IGMFY seniors can see the writing on the wall with that tactic.

  60. 60.

    Todd

    OT, am watching Danny Trejo kick ass in “Bad Ass”. Lotta fun. Also loved “God Bless America”, the Bobcat Goldthwaite produced kill feast.

  61. 61.

    Mark S.

    @Baud:

    Ha, I missed that little nuance. I guess Romney’s budget plan is now added to the ever-growing list of things that are unfair to talk about.

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    @dmsilev:
    If Mitt does indeed badge-engineer the Ryan budget to turn it into the Romney Budget, won’t Ryan resent the hell out him for that? Won’t people notice?

  65. 65.

    Josie

    @Violet: Also, republicans cannot be trusted. If one group’s social security and/or medicare is gutted, no other group is safe, no matter what the promises are.

  66. 66.

    Robin G.

    Was watching, and the husband said: “Romney used to remind me of my boss… but the more I see him, the more he reminds me of Those Guys From Corporate.”

    I think he just summed up the core reason for Romney’s declining favorables.

  67. 67.

    geg6

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    WTF are you talking about? I’m technically a Boomer (but call myself a Gen Jones as I find the description more apt for me) and I have it from a good source (myself) that a very large segment of Boomers were born AFTER 1957. Like me, for example. One year beyond the cutoff and I’m doomed to living under the underpass, roasting pigeons on discarded rusty curtain rods.

    If you’re gonna play generational warfare yourself, it helps if you know what the hell you’re talking about.

  69. 69.

    Rommie

    Well, that’s just peachy. Mittens was going to sign anything Congress sent him, because I Got Mine Already, what do I care? But Ryan, now eyeing Romney like “what a shame if something happened to him,” well, he’s all-in on actually returning to the Gilded Age. He’ll not only sign it, he’ll propose it to Congress.

    The Dope in the Rope-a-Dope got yelled at in the corner between rounds, and told to clap louderHit Harder. If the Obama campaign does this right, the counterattack will be devastating, a thing of beauty, and a decisive win. Make it so, #1!

  70. 70.

    Violet

    @Josie:

    Also, republicans cannot be trusted. If one group’s social security and/or medicare is gutted, no other group is safe, no matter what the promises are.

    Well, I know that and you know that, but people who vote Republican obviously don’t know that or don’t care. But framing it in the “Why would young people continue to pay for a system that benefits you but not them?” way is pretty easy to understand. Medicare and SS recipients know they need young people to fund their entitlements. If young people decide the system sucks and they won’t continue to pay for it, where’s that sweet sweet Medicare and SS money going to come from? Answer: it won’t exist. Even slow seniors can grasp that concept.

  72. 72.

    Triassic Sands

    The Ryan Budget is not just about saving money.

    I’m in a hurry, so if this is a repeat of something above, I apologize. OTOH it bears repeating.

    The Ryan Budget is not about saving money at all. It’s about cutting programs. His tax cuts and other fiscal irresponsibility (like an unaffordable and horribly wasteful defense budget) will not save us money at all. But the main thrust of the GOP — making sure the poor are starved (both figuratively and literally — given what they’ll do to SNAP) and further enriching the wealthiest Americans, whose idea of giving back to this country is simply, not to bother.

  73. 73.

    schrodinger's cat

    @DougJ: Our punditubbie is finally learning!

    @Omnes Omnibus: BTW I am wondering what demographic finds Ryan attractive, as a straight woman, I find him vaguely creepy, he reminds of the annoying teacher’s pet in school.

  74. 74.

    H. Dumpty

    Mitt made his fortune “reducing costs” in the private sector by cutting workers’ benefits and leaving them without a job, retirement security, or insurance. Now, with the selection of Paul Ryan (and his plan) as his running mate, he’s showing us that he plans to do the same thing in the public sector if he becomes President. He’ll deny it in words, but it couldn’t be more obvious.

    Somebody needs to cut an ad about this and play it nonstop until November.

  75. 75.

    General Stuck

    Baby Boomers that came of age in the sixties, that were under twenty five, or thereabouts, are still voting lib hippy in the here and now, in large numbers. Younger boomers, not as much.

  76. 76.

    Cantrip

    But, but, but… UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!?!? OBAMBI?!?!? VICTORY!?!?!. Even the paid trolls must have acid indigestion this morning. Doesn’t mean we slack off, I think that if we work hard enough, this election will look like 2008 redux. It will be great to have the House and Senate both back again… And this time many fewer Blue Dogs.

  77. 77.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Triassic Sands:
    Yep. Not one word about bringing the troops home, no questioning the need for twelve carrier battle groups, the F35, etc., etc. Ryan’s plan is to gut the social safety net and to ensure that the rich, er the job creators, get richer while the rest of us lead lives of quiet desperation.

  78. 78.

    Ksmiami

    @elm: Exactly my point why would anyone under this age want to continue aging the social contract if we receive no benefits. Ryan is a total shite

  79. 79.

    Anya

    Wikipedia tells me that “Ryan was voted prom king and “Biggest Brown-Noser” by his fellow classmates.[15][16]”

  80. 80.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    I believe Romney and Ryan are going on a bus tour next. Apparently, Ryan’s seat will be underneath one of the axles.

    Yes, and I expect the Axelrod will do some major damage.

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Cantrip:

    The paid trolls are paid trolls. They will do as they are told.

    Frankly, most of them are ideologues, and Ryan’s neo-feudalist approach is music to their ears.

    They’re on board with fucking over the brown, the old, the poor, the others.

  82. 82.

    Roy G.

    This is great news for those who want to kill Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc., and those who pick their candidates based on Melanin levels, or how good they look in a suit.

    Also, too, Democrats. The Republican Id is on the ticket and ripe for fisking.

  83. 83.

    WereBear

    Remember, it’s Republican seniors who don’t do nuance. What they will hear is “Cuts to Medicare” and the rest is going to be lost in the ether.

  84. 84.

    Tokyokie

    @schrodinger’s cat: Mittens doesn’t remind of the teacher’s pet as he’s incapable of obsequiousness because he considers everybody to be beneath him. He reminds me more my high school student body president, who, in our world history class during the segment on Russia, argued that Peter the Great’s expansion of the Russian empire was just a typical commie plot. I pointed out that Peter the Great died nearly a century before Karl Marx was even born, yet he persisted with the argument. Objective reality wasn’t going to dissuade him from employing the prism though which he interpreted matters.

    Mittens, having been born into both privilege and at the top of an authoritarian religious culture, and having taken full advantage of the benefits of his position at every turn, never once having to struggle, is positively contemptuous of anybody who doesn’t have his breeding, yet considers himself a self-made, rugged individualist. And when the prism through which you interpret matters is your unbridled narcissism, for which your ill-gotten material wealth is cosmic confirmation of your worthiness, your world view is going to be seriously fucked up, and objective reality is not only not going to change that, it will not be permitted to be spoken in his presence.

  86. 86.

    eyelessgame

    Neither Romney nor Ryan is a Protestant. That’s unprecedented for a presidential ticket…

  87. 87.

    g

    @Violet: When Paul Ryan’s dad died, he and the rest of his family were supported by Social Security – the same Social Security he wants to take away from you and me and everyone else.

  91. 91.

    trollhattan

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    All I can think of is Eddie Munster, but I are a dude so can’t really process that vacant-eyed look. Also, too, he might be Michele Bachmann in drag (with special costuming by Marcus!). Have they ever appeared together?

  92. 92.

    Violet

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    BTW I am wondering what demographic finds Ryan attractive, as a straight woman, I find him vaguely creepy, he reminds of the annoying teacher’s pet in school.

    I can see that he’s got elements that, when put together, make him potentially attractive. He’s got blue eyes. He’s got good hair. He smiles. It’s just that underneath all that there’s something about him that is so unattractive as to undo all the rest of it.

  93. 93.

    Rick Taylor

    At least McCain didn’t know anything about governor Palin when he chose her as his running mate. What will Mitt Romney’s excuse be, I wonder.

  96. 96.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Omnes Omnibus: MSM punditubbies seem to like him a lot. So I guess, his demographic is graying middle aged white men. Last cycle, their epitome of hotness of Fred Thompson.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    Here’s e.e. cummings’ poem; see link for the original type-spacing. It’s short and wonderful. Seems to be about Buffalo Bill Cody and the death of the Old West. Also called poem #139 and “Buffalo Bill’s.”

    Buffalo Bill’s
    defunct
    who used to
    ride a watersmooth-silver
    stallion
    and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
    Jesus
    he was a handsome man
    and what i want to know is
    how do you like your blueeyed boy
    Mister Death

  98. 98.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @shortstop:

    There are plenty of seniors like my parents who care about the welfare of those behind them, but there seem to be plenty more who embrace the “I got mine; screw the younger generation and besides, black people are buying alcohol on food stamps” mentality.

    This: IMO Romney still gets FL. (The GOP’s been assuming for years that they’d be able to get Boomers to sell the rest of us out, once they started retiring… and I can’t say they’re wrong. But we’ll see).

    I have nothing to add that hasn’t already been said everywhere else: But when your national strategy is built upon the foundation of: Selfish seniors in FL, legalized voter suppression in PA and OH, and just plain old racism in the rest of the Southern states… doesn’t say much for this ‘battle of ideas’ we’re (allegedly) about to witness.

  101. 101.

    Cantrip

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, I agree that they’re true believers…. But one of their primary goals is to convince the mushy middle by sounding quasi-reasonable… Just made much much harder by this “brilliant pick.

  102. 102.

    Chris

    @beltane:

    I want to say “Nah, we’re not Bolshevik, it’s not in our blood.” Some guy here made a compelling argument a week or two ago, though, that a lot of revolutions happen not because people revolt but because the elites essentially hoard so much money that eventually there’s nothing left to pay for society, and society breaks.

    The Ryan budget is definitely a giant leap forward in that direction.

  103. 103.

    CarolDuhart2

    @geg6: Forgotten in the generational cutoff (I’m 55) thing is that a lot of Boomer families were actually Boomer/Joneser families and even beyond. My oldest brother is 71(a Silent) and my baby brother is 50 (late gen Jones). There were a lot of 4 child and more families then. Will the older members of the family support cutoffs for their baby brothers and sisters?

  104. 104.

    xian

    @smintheus: it’s actually an old hippie saying, slightly bastardized, from the 60s. there’s a chemistry-class version of it too: “If you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the precipitate.”

  105. 105.

    Chris

    @Violet:

    Either they don’t know, or they don’t care, or they’re counting on the Democrats and other non-madmen to protect their welfare while everyone else’s is gutted.

  107. 107.

    Calouste

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    BTW I am wondering what demographic finds Ryan attractive, as a straight woman, I find him vaguely creepy, he reminds of the annoying teacher’s pet in school.

    To paraphrase the great Krugthulu, blessed be his beard:

    he is an ugly man’s idea of what an attractive man looks like.

  111. 111.

    schrodinger's cat

    @DougJ: No, but a very good friend of mine lives there, so I visit often (once a year). I was last there in December of 2010.

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