Category: Paul Ryan

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Paul Ryan Politics

Todd Akin – It’s Not About Ego, It’s Not About Politics. I Stand On Principles

Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate, is very familiar with Mr. “Legitimate Rape” also known as Todd Akin. The two were responsible for a bill attempting to change the definition of rape from its present meaning to “forcible rape.”

So when Todd Akin got into trouble for expressing his and the Republican party’s views that rape is not “legitimate” if it’s not forced, Paul Ryan was tapped by the Romney campaign to contact his friend and ask him to withdraw.

But there will be no withdrawal from Mr. Akin, as the deadline for him to withdraw came and went yesterday without much fanfare from the Akin camp. Mr. Akin is now on an apology tour, making his rounds to all the news outlets asking for forgiveness.

Paul Ryan was asked about Akin and his statement. He wasted no time throwing Akin under the bus. In an interview with KDKA of Pittsburgh, Ryan said, “His statements were outrageous, over the pale. I don’t know anybody who would agree with that. Rape is rape period, end of story.”

Akin spoke to NBC’s The Today Show and confirmed that his alley Paul Ryan had turned on him.  He also stated that he’s not going anywhere, even if his party’s future depends on it. When asked if his cause or ego will trump the greater cause of the Republican party, Akin answered, “this is not about me,” Mr. Akin said. “It’s not about ego. It’s about the voters of the state of Missouri. They have chosen me because of principles that I stand on and put principles over politics.”

Video…

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Paul Ryan Politics Rape

President Obama Responds To Republican’s War On Women – “Rape Is Rape”

President Obama on Monday called Rep. Todd Akin’s remarks about rape “offensive” and sought to tie the Republican Senate candidate to the GOP presidential ticket.

“Rape is rape,” Obama said at a White House press briefing. He called Akin’s comments “way out there.”

Defining rape, he said, “doesn’t make sense to the American people and doesn’t make sense to me.”

“What I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, the majority of which are men, making decision that affect health of women,” Obama said.

The Obama campaign said Ryan supported a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion in all instances, including in the case of rape. It also said Ryan, who opposes abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger, had worked with Akin on tough anti-abortion rights legislation.

“The underlying notion that we should be making decisions on behalf of women for their healthcare decisions … that is a significant difference in approach between me and the other party,” Obama said.

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Paul Ryan Politics

Todd Akin And Paul Ryan Co-Sponsored Bill Changing Definition of ‘Rape’ to ‘Forcible Rape’

Now that Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin has made us aware that there is something called “Legitimate Rape,” and that a woman’s body is capable of “shutting that whole thing down,” we are now getting word that Mr. Akin and the Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, sponsored a bill called ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,’ that would have changed the definition of word “rape” to “forcible rape.”

The new definition of rape did not go through because of public pressure and the bill’s absurdity, but imagine what would have happened if these crazy nuts had their way – a woman who suffered the torture of being raped, would have had to explain how forcible the rape was and then a qualified third party would then determine if the forcing was enough to qualify as a rape.

Akin and Ryan were the original co-sponsors of the controversial bill H.R. 3, “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which initially included language which changed the definition of “rape” to “forcible rape,” until public pressure forced the bill’s supporters to remove that unacceptable and narrow definition. As I wrote previously, Paul Ryan is not just anti-choice, his anti-choice views are extreme and just plain bad for all women.

Linking Ryan to Akin and the idea that there is such a thing as “legitimate rape” based on pseudo-science and folklore is something that needs to be done before the upcoming election. While Team Romney attempted to create distance with Akin, saying that both Romney and Ryan “disagree” with his statements, there was nothing in their statement that said they condemn his remarks as hurtful to victims. There was also nothing in Team Romney’s statement that pointed out that what Akin said about pregnancies resulting from rape being rare is just flat-out wrong.

Ryan was against abortion in all cases including rape until Team Romney’s statement. Romney has said he would get rid of Planned Parenthood and has been moving further right on women’s issues since he was a pro-choice governor of Massachusetts. This could be a huge problem for the Republican ticket in November.

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics

The Ryan Bounce

It’s been more than a week since Mitt Romney named Paul Ryan as his running mate, which is enough time to determine the extent of any bounce in the polls. At this point, the answer is that Ryan has helped in part, but it remains to be seen if he provides a more lasting upward movement in Romney’s numbers.

Last week, Mark Blumenthal of Huffington Post/Pollster wrote that the polls weren’t showing much of a bounce, perhaps 1 or 2 percentage points towards Romney, but most of the gains were within the poll’s margin of error and that President Obama had gained in some polls after the announcement. Nate Silver weighed in on the Romney bounce in the polls and the Intrade markets, and was unimpressed, but he did note that many of the trend lines in recent polls have moved in Romney’s direction. Stuart Rothenberg also wrote an interesting piece warning that party identification samples are key to deciphering polls and weighing their relative merits. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who watches and analyzes polls, but it will become even more important as pollsters move from registered voter samples to likely voter models after the party conventions.

The state polls that were released last week show better results for Romney than any perceived bounce from the Ryan announcement. The Purple Strategies polls from August 15 give Romney leads in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, and Obama the lead in Colorado. Recent polling in Virginia is showing promising news for the Romney campaign as he tries to cut into Obama’s perceived strength in the Washington suburbs.

From the article:

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, says the task for Romney is to put the “pieces of the puzzle” together: the Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Washington suburbs and exurbs, along with the rural regions of southwest Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and Southside. “The rural areas are still 20 percent of the vote in Virginia,” Sabato says, and the people there are conservative. The difference this year is that Republicans in these parts of the state are more motivated than they were in 2008. Maximum turnout among rural Virginians could make all the difference.

If those results stood up until November, Romney would win the presidency and the Republicans would probably take the Senate.

There were a pair of Wisconsin polls, with Romney ahead in the Rasmussen survey and Obama ahead in a CNN poll. The big difference is that Rasmussen polled likely voters and CNN found registered voters, so in this case I would say that the addition of Paul Ryan has probably affected the race.  The president is ahead according to a Franklin & Marshall  poll of Pennsylvania (registered voters) by 47-42%, but that margin represents a reduction from 11 points the last time F & M polled, so the Romney campaign will probably look to put more resources into that state.

The national tracking polls don’t really show a sustained bounce for the GOP. Gallup now has Romney with a 2 point lead, which is up from a tie late last week, but the Rasmussen tracking poll shows Obama leading by 2. That represents a 6 point swing for the president who was down by 4 as late as last Wednesday.

In the end, the polling after Romney made the Ryan announcement has been mixed with some good news on the state front for Romney and a continued national lead for Obama. The Republican Convention provides our next opportunity to gauge the race and I would say that this is Romney’s biggest and best opportunity to introduce himself to the American people. If he does it well, he could see a 10 point bounce in the polls. Anything more would be gravy, but anything less would be seen as disappointing. In addition, unemployment figures will be released not long after the Democrats close their convention, and we know how both campaigns will use those numbers.

Enjoy the August doldrums. The excitement lies ahead.

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics taxes Wisconsin

VIDEO: Paul Ryan’s Budget Will Give Mitt Romney a 1% Tax Rate – Up From 0%!

PrioritiesUSA, the SuperPac supporting President Obama has created another video. We all remember how Republicans and Mitt Romney got up-in-arms over the SuperPac’s video about Joe Soptic – a factory steel worker fired when Romney’s Bain Capital closed the company that employed him. Joe’s wife later died of cancer because the unemployed couple had no health insurance.

In their new video, PrioritiesUSA is highlighting the Budget framed by Romney’s VP choice Paul Ryan. Did you know that under Ryan’s plan people in Mitt Romney‘s income bracket would only pay a rate of 1%? And for Mr. Romney, that 1% might actually be a rate increase. Word on the street is that he’s paid zero taxes in earlier years. Of course no one has come forward with concrete evidence to prove this claim, but this is what we’re hearing and Mitt Romney is too scared to release his taxes to prove us wrong.

Video…

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George Bush Paul Ryan Politics

Paul Ryan Blames Obama For Stuff That Happened Under Bush

At this rate, it’s just a matter of time before President Obama gets blamed for the Great Depression of the 1930’s!

Bush was still President, but in 2008, President Obama went to an auto plant in Wisconsin and told the then struggling company that reconstruction and some government help could keep the plant open and save jobs in the process. The auto plant eventually closed in December of 2008. No, Obama did not have the title of “President” at that time… this happened in 2008!

But Paul Ryan is apparently not familiar with something called records. On multiple occasions as he campaigns with Mitt Romney, Ryan blamed Obama for not keeping the plant open.

“I remember President Obama visiting it when he was first running, saying he’ll keep that plant open,” Ryan said in Ohio Thursday, describing the shuttered GM factory in Janesville, Wis. “One more broken promise.”

Ryan blamed rising gas prices under Obama for the closing. He echoed the complaint in an interview with a local ABC affiliate, suggesting it showed that Obama’s auto rescue was a sham.

“It didn’t help Janesville,” he said. “They shut our plant down. It didn’t help Kenosha. I represent there; they shut down the Chrysler plant.”

The Detroit News noted that Obama said during a visit in early 2008 that government help and some restructuring could keep the plant open. But after the financial crisis and a collapse in demand for the SUVs the factory produced, it shut down in December 2008 in the waning days of Bush’s second term. It’s still owned by GM, but has been closed ever since.

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics

Hey, Paul Ryan Could Flip Flop Too – Video

He once credit Ayn Rand and particularly her book “Atlas Shrugged,” for teaching him about his “belief system.” But now, Paul Ryan – the newly appointed Republican vice presidential candidate – is trying to run far away… far far away from Ayn Rand, and he is leaving Mitt Romney in the dust on the road to Flip Flop City.

In 2005, Paul Ryan spoke to the Atlas Society and said this about Ayn Rand;“There is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works.”

Below, Lawrence O’Donnell explains how fast Paul is running…

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics Sarah Palin

Confessions Of A VP Voyeur

Sarah Palin scared the crap out of me. Paul Ryan? Not so much.

When John McCain announced that he was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, I got a cold shiver down my spine. Not the same cold shiver I got two or three weeks later when it became clear that Governor Palin’s talking alone created a threat to our national and educational security, but a cold shiver that entertained the idea that these two could win the White House. And let’s be fair: Sarah Palin was a “fresh face,” she was “energetic,” she was a “woman,” (okay, lol. No quotations needed for that last one…), she could energize a crowd and she was very darned compelling. Next to her, Barack Obama looked plodding and dull. I thought the race was over.

We all know how that worked out, and America is a stronger country because of it.

All of this came back to mind over the past few days after Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate. My reaction? Very little emotion. I didn’t feel threatened. I wasn’t scared. None of that adrenalin fueled fear I had in 2008. Nope, Paul Ryan does not scare me in the least. And that’s interesting because Ryan has a wealth of ideas and proposals and serious thoughts that would never take an overnight in Sarah Palin’s amygdala.

I searched a bit deeper, and this is what I found.

Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are too much alike. When they stand together, they look like the corporate jerks who sent your job to Hyderabad and your health care to the local EmergiCenter. They even talk that way. I always admired how the GOP could take an image and make it work on television, but they’ve come a cropper this time. Looking at Romney-Ryan is not a compelling visual. As a matter of fact, it’s a bit boring.

The press narrative so far is that Mitt chose someone as a counterweight to his emerging image as a gaffe prone slice of white American cheese, but that’s exactly what Mitt didn’t need. He needed to move towards the center of the political spectrum with a politician who didn’t threaten the middle. Ryan looks the part of the counterweight, but his ideas are easily packaged as a scary, program-cutting menace who will throw your grandma under select vehicles that, at this point, you can’t afford anyway. And that’s exactly how the Obama campaign is playing it.

The other thing is that I don’t get the sense that the excitement over Romney’s choice will last very long. He’s already running away from Ryan’s budget, making the questionable assumption that his 59-point economic plan is somehow a better political plank than the reason he chose Ryan in the first place. Ryan is a darling of the far right, but not of the middle or independents. To win them over he’s got to move beyond deficit reduction to something the middle can grab hold of, but neither Romney nor Ryan has that. They have a bad economy, high unemployment and hatred of Obama on their right flank. They have to promise a vision of the country that’s better than what we have now. Cutting Medicare while saving every weapons program and keeping tax cuts for the wealthy is not the way to do that. The right-wing will vote for Mitt anyway, so he really didn’t need Ryan to shore up the base. What he will need is more independent voters in Florida and Ohio. I don’t think he gets them with Ryan.

In the end, voters want to know what’s in it for them. They say they want deficit reduction, but what they really want is a job and a home and a decent neighborhood school. Romney-Ryan has the opportunity to make the case for that, but it will be difficult because that’s not the evolving national conversation. President Obama has run a terrific campaign so far keeping Romney on his heels and controlling the message. Romney can try to change that message, but his choice of Ryan now limits, rather than expands, his choice of subjects. Just as Mitt is being defined as the rich guy, Ryan will be known as the cut Medicare guy. That’s not a winner.

And that’s why I’m not afraid of Paul Ryan.

(But Sarah Palin still scares the crap out of me.)

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Paul Ryan Politics

Republican Strategist: Paul Ryan Could Cost Party Congressional Seats in November

Republicans strategists are worried that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) addition to the presidential ticket will cost their party House and Senate seats this fall.

Their concern: Democrats will successfully demonize Ryan’s budget plan, which contains controversial spending cuts and changes to Medicare.

“There are a lot races that are close to the line we’re not going to win now because they’re going to battle out who’s going to kill grandma first, ObamaCare or Paul Ryan’s budget,” said one Republican strategist who works on congressional races. “It could put the Senate out of reach. In the House it puts a bunch of races in play that would have otherwise been safe. … It remains to be seen how much damage this causes, but my first blush is this is not good.”

Many Republicans in tough races this year, especially in the House, voted for Ryan’s proposal, which makes it hard for them to distance themselves from it.

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Iowa Paul Ryan Politics

Paul Ryan’s Day In Iowa – A Multitude of Boos – Video

After being anointed as Mitt Romney’s chosen one for Vice President, Paul Ryan went out today to do a solo act in Iowa. But like you’ll see from the video below, the American people have done their homework on Paul Ryan, and they know all about his proposals to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for the poor, at the same time he’s giving trillions in tax cuts to rich people.

Iowans got this one right!

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics taxes

Paul Ryan Wants to End Mitt Romney’s Tax Havens – Video

One of the reasons Mitt Romney is bucking the American people’s wish to for him to release more of his taxes is because there are many tax havens he now enjoys. So far, we know he has millions stashed away in The Cayman Islands, we know of millions he has stored in Bermuda and we can bet you “$10,000.00” (one of Romney’s favorite betting amount) that there are many more tax havens where the Romneys bank their money to avoid paying their full share of taxes.

With that said, Paul Ryan – Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick – is apparently not a big fan of the tax havens and is already going against this favorite tax evasion method of Mitt Romney. Appearing with Romney on 60 Minuets with Bob Schieffer, Ryan responded to a question about the rich and their tax rate.

Schieffer asked; “You say of course the wealthiest people pay the larger share, but don’t they also pay at a lower rate? When you figure in capital gains and all of that?”

Romney replied with his usual jargon about the rich paying more taxes than anyone else, but then Ryan said this:

What we’re saying is take away the tax shelters that are uniquely enjoyed by people in the top tax brackets so they can’t shelter as much money from taxation, should lower tax rates for everybody to make America more competitive.

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics

Mitt Romney Chose Paul Ryan as VP. Let’s Learn A Little About Paul Ryan

Now that Mitt Romney has made his choice for vice president with the Paul Ryan selection, it is very important that Americans learn a little more about the man who could potentially be the next president of the United State in the unlikely event that Mitt Romney wins in November.

So to help us with that task, the Obama re-election team has put out this video touting one of Paul Ryan’s most important accomplishment, something known as The Ryan Budget.

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