http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...utation-with-misleading-nomination-speech.php n Beutler-August 30, 2012, 12:12 AM34088 Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryanâs headlining speech at the GOP convention in Tampa Wednesday night touched on many of the electionâs defining issues. But it was also filled with prevarications â not just recitations of the conventions âyou didnât build thatâ theme, but on the very policy matters that have endeared him to the political establishment in Washington. The speech effectively rallied his supporters in the audience. But on the merits it was chock full of misstatements of fact that undermine his reputation for brave, big ideas â which has hastened his rise through the ranks of the GOP. Here are the top five examples: â¢Medicare Ryan forged his reputation in large part by drafting and advancing an unpopular plan to dramatically cut and privatize Medicare. Though he didnât mention that plan once on Wednesday, he included it in his last two budgets, both of which preserved the Affordable Care Acts cuts to Medicare â taken mostly from overpayments to private insurers and hospitals. Instead, Ryan once again dubiously accused President Obama of being the true threat to Medicare. âYou see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didnât have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didnât even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and weâre going to stop it.â Obama did use those Medicare savings â in the form of targeted cuts in payments to providers, not in benefits to seniors â to pay for the health care law. Ryanâs budget calls for using them to finance tax cuts for wealthy Americans, and deficit reduction. But by now calling to restore that spending commitment to Medicare, Ryan and Romney are pledging to hasten Medicareâs insolvency by many years. â¢U.S. Credit Rating Ryan said the Obama presidency, âbegan with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.â Standard & Poors downgraded the countryâs sovereign debt rating in 2011 because congressional Republicans, of which Ryan is a key leader, threatened not to increase the countryâs borrowing authority â risking a default on the debt â unless Democrats agreed to slash trillions of dollars from domestic social programs and investments. Ryan even briefly toyed with the idea that the countryâs creditors would forgive default for âa day or two or three or fourâ as long as Democrats ultimately agreed to GOP demands. â¢Janesville GM Plant Ryan criticized Obama for â yes â not using government funds to prop up an auto plant in his district. âA lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: âI believe that if our government is there to support you ⦠this plant will be here for another hundred years,ââ Ryan recalled. âThatâs what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didnât last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day.â Ignoring the inconsistency of a Republican chastising Obama for not bailing out more auto manufacturers, the plant in question closed before Obamaâs inauguration in 2009. â¢Bowles-Simpson Debt Commission Ryan chastised Obama: âHe created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.â Ryan sat on that commission. He voted against it. Following his lead, so did the panelâs other House Republicans. â¢Protecting the Poor Near the end of his speech, Ryan claimed the campaignâs top priority is protecting the poor. âWe have responsibilities, one to another â we do not each face the world alone,â he said. âAnd the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak.â Just under two thirds of the dramatic spending cuts in Ryanâs budget target programs that benefit low-income people. That plan also calls for large tax cuts for high-income earners.
Maybe he meant protecting the poor from perpetual democratic welfare programs. Welfare doesn't benefit low income people, it just helps to keep them low income.