Romney picks Paul Ryan as running mate

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Zyzzyva

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WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney has chosen Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate and will introduce him on Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., the campaign said, a selection that shakes up the presidential race and presents a Republican ticket that offers a clear choice for voters in November.

Mr. Romney is set to announce his selection after touring the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin around 9 a.m., ending a four-month search for a running mate. The announcement opens a four-day tour through four critical battleground states, with Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan poised to travel together to kick off the debut of their new partnership.

“Mitt’s choice for VP is Paul Ryan,” an announcement on the campaign’s mobile phone application said Saturday morning a few minutes after 7 a.m. “Spread the word about America’s Comeback Team #RomneyRyan2012.”

The selection of Mr. Ryan, 42, was kept secret until late Friday night when the campaign said that Mr. Romney would use the bus tour to disclose his vice-presidential candidate. Mr. Ryan was en route to Virginia.

Mr. Romney telephoned other finalists for the position on Friday evening, aides said, and thanked them for their cooperation in the vetting process and their help with his campaign effort. But he did not tell them whom he had decided upon.

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, was set to campaign for Mr. Romney in New Hampshire on Saturday. A Republican close to Mr. Pawlenty said that he had been informed that he had not been chosen by Mr. Romney; Mr. Pawlenty would continue with his schedule and not be in Virginia for the vice-presidential announcement, the Republican said.

Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who had also been vetted and considered a top prospect, received a call from Mr. Romney on Friday night informing him that he had not been selected, a Republican official confirmed. Mr. Portman is scheduled to attend a cancer research bike ride in Ohio on Saturday and was not asked to travel to Virginia for the announcement.

The selection was announced as Mr. Romney moves into a critical period leading to his nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. He had planned to disclose the decision through the new mobile phone application, “Mitt’s VP,” a technique to help broaden the campaign’s base of supporters, but it was already widely reported earlier on Saturday morning.

In choosing Mr. Ryan, Mr. Romney was looking for a running mate to help shake up the race in the final three months. Mr. Ryan is seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and a favorite among conservative activists who view him as deeply committed to their fiscal principles.

But Mr. Ryan, a member of Congress since 1999, is also a lightning rod for Democrats who view him as the epitome of the Republican vision of deep cuts in social spending and entitlement programs. Unlike Mr. Romney, Mr. Ryan has spent nearly his entire career in Washington either in or around the federal government.

As chairman of the House Budget Committee, he pushed his colleagues to boldly stake out an uncompromising position on the nation’s fiscal burdens.

The Ryan alternative to the Obama administration’s budget — once seen by many Republicans as too politically fraught, with its blunt talk of overhauling Medicare and Social Security — has become the core of the party’s fiscal plan. He was a central pillar in winning a Congressional majority in 2010 and persuaded his party to embrace a “Roadmap for America’s Future,” and promoted himself as one of the party’s leaders who called themselves the Young Guns.

Now, Mr. Ryan’s budget becomes the centerpiece of the debate in the presidential campaign, with Democrats eager to pounce on a program, which is politically risky. Even for Republicans, the dangers were underscored by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last year, who called the plan “right-wing social engineering,” but was quickly scolded by conservatives.

Picking Mr. Ryan would indicate that Mr. Romney wants to double-down on his basic message, making his case for a conservative overhaul of the nation’s economy.

Mr. Romney, who seemed to audition many of his potential running mates in highly public fashion on the campaign trail, had an easy and instant rapport with Mr. Ryan. In Wisconsin, Mr. Ryan spent several days with Mr. Romney, taking him to Culver’s for butter burgers and chocolate malts, and the two passed out sandwiches at Cousins Subs on the day of the state’s primary.

Sometimes, Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan seemed to resemble a duo from a buddy movie rather than two politicians kissing babies and working rope lines. On April Fools’ Day, Mr. Ryan conspired with Mr. Romney’s staff to orchestrate an elaborate prank at a pancake breakfast, and the two laughed and bantered so frequently that Mr. Romney joked about having to deny that Mr. Ryan was one of his five sons.

Democratic groups have been preparing for Mr. Romney’s choice of a vice-presidential running mate, too, and are eager to revive the criticism about Mr. Ryan’s budget. The president and Mr. Ryan have clashed in the past. In a major economic speech in Washington last year, Mr. Obama assailed Mr. Ryan’s budget even as Mr. Ryan sat in the audience and watched.

“These are the kind of cuts that tells us we can’t afford the America that I believe in,” Mr. Obama said last April. “I believe it paints a vision of our future that’s deeply pessimistic.”

Mr. Obama spared little about the budget that Republicans have embraced several times.

“There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,” the president continued, as Mr. Ryan sat stone faced. “There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.”

The announcement of Mr. Ryan as the vice-presidential pick came after a week of pressure from conservative publications and activists who urged Mr. Romney to Mr. Ryan.

An editorial in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday said Mr. Ryan “best exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election.” A similar column in The Weekly Standard said that there would be little downside to picking the young, energetic Mr. Ryan.

“Romney, and Republicans, will be running on the Romney-Ryan plan no matter what,” The Weekly Standard wrote.

Picking Mr. Ryan suggests that Mr. Romney is prepared for an extended debate with the president during the fall campaign, with Mr. Ryan at his side.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/u...-ryan-as-his-running-mate.html?pagewanted=all
 
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“There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,” the president continued, as Mr. Ryan sat stone faced. “There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.”
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Ryan's plan in a nutshell.
 
Damn, I was hoping he would choose Bachman. That way it could have been two GOP candidates with crazy VP's coming up short to a "Muslim" and a guy names Joe.
 
This sums its up quite well i would say.

The Ryan Gamble

STUART ROTHENBERG


My reaction to hearing that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would pick U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) to be his running-mate was almost the same as when I heard John McCain had selected then-governor Sarah Palin (Alaska) to be his vice-president four years ago, though for very different reasons.

Ryan, like Palin, is a bold but risky pick. He could be a terrific choice, or he could be a terrible one. It certainly is not the safe choice that someone like former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty would have been.

Of course, the differences between Ryan and Palin are huge. While I had never met Palin, never set eyes on her and knew little or nothing about her record or speaking style when she was announced, Ryan is a known commodity. And while Palin was unprepared for the national spotlight, Ryan has been in it and shown himself to be thoughtful and articulate.

I first met Ryan when he came in for an interview during his first race for Congress in 1998, a race I initially expected him to lose to nurse Lydia Spottswood (D). As I wrote recently in Roll Call, I found Ryan to be bright and articulate. But, back in 1998, he was not yet 30 years old and his career consisted of working as a staffer on Capitol Hill. He didn’t look like someone who was going to win in a district that was difficult for any Republican.

But Ryan outworked Spottswood, who turned out to be a weaker candidate than everyone expected, and before Election Day rolled around, my assessment of that race had changed. Ryan became the favorite to win, which is what he did.

Since then, Ryan has become a major figure on Capitol Hill and in the Republican Party. He is smart, personable, down to earth and able to explain complicated economic choices and issues clearly. He is no Sarah Palin.

Still, like Palin, Ryan is a high risk choice.

Democrats rightly are licking their chops at the thought of Ryan, who is associated with a detailed budget plan that could now define Romney.

While Republicans paint the Wisconsin Republican’s plan as a bold one that will get the nation’s economic house in order, shrink government and address our growing debt, Democrats will attack it (as they have been doing for months) as a threat to Social Security and Medicare and an attack on the middle class.

For months it has been clear that Romney needs to make the presidential race into a referendum on President Obama’s performance, particularly on the economy. Romney’s selection of Ryan makes it easier for Democrats to make the contest into a choice: Obama’s agenda and goals versus the Ryan budget and the agenda of House Republicans.

Conservatives, of course, think that their ideas are better, so they have been pushing for Ryan. But it isn’t clear that voters will prefer Ryan’s approach to Obama’s, particularly during the frenzy of a campaign during which wild charges are more likely than a thoughtful discussion of long-term economic policy.

Selecting Ryan appears to be an acknowledgement by the Romney campaign that President Obama has succeeded in driving the agenda, turning the election from a referendum on jobs and the president’s performance into a personal choice between Obama and Romney, the former Bain executive who won’t release his tax returns.

If Romney’s strategists now believe that the election has become about their party’s nominee – and if they believe that Romney isn’t likely to win under those circumstances, as they probably do – then selecting Ryan is more understandable.

For while Ryan gives Democrats a specific target to attack on budgetary issues and priorities, his selection also returns the discussion to the economy, the budget, the deficit and jobs – the issues that Romney needs the election to be about.

The selection of Ryan isn’t about energizing the GOP base or pleasing conservatives. It is about redefining the contest away from personality and tax returns and back to the economy. And it is about leadership and making tough decisions.

The Democrats’ knee-jerk reaction will be to focus on Ryan and his budget proposal, demonizing him and it. But is President Obama more likely to win an argument over the deficit, the budget and Social Security or over Romney’s relationship with Bain and his taxes? It’s an interesting question.

Ryan’s selection could potentially change the dynamic in the fight for Congress. It gives Democratic candidates nationally a potentially important narrative to appeal to swing voters. “Now with Congressman Ryan on the ticket, House Republicans face the one thing they hoped to avoid – a national debate on their budget that puts millionaires first and Medicare and the middle class last,” said DCCC Chairman Steve Israel in a statement.

I’m skeptical that the Ryan pick will fundamentally change many races, but we will now hear Democrats asserting that it will.

At the end of the day, voters select between the presidential nominees and parties, not between the vice-presidents or even the tickets. The hoopla over the Ryan selection will fade between now and November.

But since Romney’s choice of Ryan isn’t merely a safe one, it is worth watching to see whether or not it changes the campaign’s dynamic. The selection of Ryan has the potential to be an important shot in the arm for Romney, maybe even a game-changer, or an albatross around his neck.
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http://rothenbergpoliticalreport.com/news/article/the-ryan-gamble
 
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As a matter of fact, we don't really have politicians in our goverment.

What we have are a bunch of loud-mouthed apartheid skirmishers who have been rewarded with political positions.
 
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You wanna read this: http://www.upworthy.com/youre-never...ack-job-math-job-in-his-budget-proposal?c=bl2 In a nutshell:

paul_ryan_Loopholes-400.png


297352_10150999657136275_1179389151_n.jpg

:D


12 Things You Should Know About Paul Ryan
Igor Volksy, Think Progress

Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cuts them for millionaires.
Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system.
Ryan thinks Social Security is a "ponzi scheme."
Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years.
Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil.
Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies.
Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to "rationing and benefit cuts."
Ryan believes that Romneycare is "not that dissimilar to Obamacare."
Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget.
Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.
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http://www.upworthy.com/3-essential-things-to-read-about-paul-ryan-today?c=bl2
 
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@Nico:

I know you ganna be reading this thread. I know you are a libertarian so I can imagine all the Randroids must be excited about this. However the other day you admitted that Koch Brothers were manipulating libertarians ideals for their own evil political gains. Do you still support this guys knowing that he is Koch Brothers production? It is so transparent as well. Koch Brothers are mostly big oil and he is supporting $40 billion corporate welfare for big oil.
 
ghoti said:
paul_ryan_Loopholes-400.png
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The man is clearly Satan incarnate.

Interesting that your exact graph appears in Paul Ryan's "The Path to prosperity" plan to fix american surrounded by the following text:

The Unfair Tax Code

All of the deductions, loopholes and carve outs in the tax code don’t just add to the code’s complexity – they add to its unfairness as well.

The sum of all the special credits, deductions and loopholes in the tax code soZcalled “tax preferences”) amounts to over $1 trillion per year. To put that figure in perspective, that is roughly the same amount that the U.S. government collects in individual income taxes each year. In other words, these tax preferences end up narrowing the tax base by roughly 50 percent.

This is important for two reasons. First, because America has a highly progressive income tax, these tax preferences are disproportionately used by upper income individuals see Figure 5). For instance, the top 1 percent of taxpayers reap about 3 times as much benefit from special tax credits and deductions excluding refundable credits) than middle income earners and 13 times as much benefit than the lowest income quintile. And second, a narrow tax base requires much higher tax rates to raise a given amount of revenue.

A code with high rates and lots of loopholes benefits those who can afford the best lawyers and lobbyists in Washington. Instead of advocating for lower rates for all, those with political muscle usually take the path of least resistance by pushing for special deductions and carve outs. This not only lowers their effective tax rates, but also enables them to use the complexities of the tax code to stack the deck against their competitors. There’s nothing fair about that.
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A few more nuggets.

(p.60)

"The tendency of both parties to fill the tax code with loopholes also requires higher rates to compensate for lost revenue, resulting in a less efficient and less growth oriented tax system."

(p. 60)

"Like the individual income tax, the corporate tax contains a host of special carve-outs and deductions which serve to narrow the tax base by about 25 percent. This in turn necessitates the high rate that is undermining U.S. competitiveness."

(p.61)

"This budget then attacks complexity, unfairness, and inefficiency in the tax code with a set of fundamental reforms... while getting rid of distortions, loopholes and preferences that divert economic resources from their most efficient uses."
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http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf
 
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@Zyzzyva
"Paul Ryan Cracks Joke As 71 Year-Old Citizen Is Forced To The Ground"
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And your point is?
It's OK to manhandle 70 year old pensioners if they happen to disagree with your particular view of the world?

:sick:
 
Fazda said:
@Zyzzyva

And your point is?
It's OK to manhandle 70 year old pensioners if they happen to disagree with your particular view of the world?

:sick:
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The guy stood up and started shouting during a speech and was removed by security. That's standard practise for all politicians when confronted with shouting hecklers, it has absolutely nothing to do with the man's ideas.

It's basic stuff really, and has happened to Obama as well.
 
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Zyzzyva, what is your opinion of Ayn Rand and her book, Atlas Shurgged ? :D
 
Paul Ryan Would Devastate College Access

Since Mitt Romney announced that Paul Ryan would be his running mate earlier today, much has been said about what even Newt Gingrich described as “radical,” “right wing social engineering” that he advocates. Aside from cosponsoring a bill to ban many forms of birth control, wanting to dismantle social security, end medicare as we know it and supporting subsidies for oil companies, Ryan also has quite the record onagainst college affordability. Here’s a review of the highlights:

Eliminates the in-school interest subsidies for undergraduate students
Eliminates the student aid eligibility expansions enacted by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA), including auto-zero eligibility and Income Protection Allowance
Proposes an undefined a maximum income cap for Pell Grant eligibility
Eliminates Pell Grant eligibility for less-than-half-time students
Eliminates the automatic increases in the maximum Pell award above $5,550
Eliminates the mandatory funding for Pell Grants
Eliminates Pell and Campus-Based Aid Administration Cost Allowances (ACA)
Repeals the mandatory funding for College Access Challenge Grants ($150 million in FY 2013). Again, since there is no corresponding increase in the discretionary side, in effect this either cuts this program or will result in $150 million in additional cuts in FY 2013 to all other discretionary education programs.
Allows interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans to double on July 1 from 3.4% to 6.8%
Clearly, neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan agree with President Obama that access to higher education should be expanded as an “economic necessity.” Instead, they envision an America with no aid for students from disadvantaged students; where students can only “get as much education as they can afford,” in Romney’s own words.

That’s bad for students.

That’s bad for America.

No wonder college students overwhelmingly support the president.
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http://giovannihashimoto.com/blog/2012/930/paul-ryan-wants-to-cut-college-access/
 
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