August 11, 2012
Contact: Trav Robertson
405.427.3366

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: The Go Back Team

 

Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman Wallace Collins said, “Paul Ryan wants to hurt Oklahomans by eliminating Social Security and he has a history of not supporting women’s issues. He is the perfect fit for Romney as the Go Back Team because they want to take America back to the 1950s.” In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy. The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors. As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.

 

The Romney-Ryan top-down budget plan would weaken the economy:

 

  • Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney both support trillions in budget-busting tax cuts for millionaires paid for with tax hikes on the middle class and deep cuts in education and other investments we need to grow. Ryan’s extreme budget plan, which Mitt Romney has embraced, would make deep spending cuts now to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, which would weaken the recovery and cost the economy jobs.

 

  • According to Harvard economist Jeffrey Liebman, based on Mitt Romney’s own projections on the impact of deep spending cuts on the economy, Paul Ryan’s budget plan could cost the U.S. more than 1 million jobs.

 

The Romney-Ryan plan would end Medicare as we know it

 

  • The Romney-Ryan extreme budget would end Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher program that would increase seniors’ health costs by $6,350 a year. Ryan has also proposed a plan that would have privatized Social Security, subjecting seniors’ retirement security to the whims of the stock market.

 

The Romney Ryan plan would raise taxes on the middle class and cut taxes for the wealthy

 

  • The Romney-Ryan extreme budget includes a tax “reform” plan that would make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, and give millionaires an additional tax cut worth more than $250,000 a year. Paying for these tax cuts for the most fortunate families would require higher taxes on the middle class, gutting investments in our future, and ending Medicare as we know it.

 

  • Just like Mitt Romney’s tax plan, middle-class families could pay thousands of dollars more a year in taxes to help fund tax cuts for millionaires. Ryan would cut or eliminate middle-class tax deductions like mortgage interest, charitable contributions and health premiums.

 

The Romney Ryan plan would gut middle-class investments

 

  • To pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest, Paul Ryan would gut investments critical to middle-class security.

 

  • This includes cutting Pell Grant scholarships for nearly 10 million students; kicking 200,000 kids out of Head Start; significantly cutting clean energy investments, which would make America more dependent on foreign oil; and would even key investments in veterans’ health care by 19 percent.

 

Like Romney, Paul Ryan is severely conservative

 

  • Like Mitt Romney, Ryan’s severely conservative positions are out of touch with most Americans’ values. He would take us backward on women’s health and equal rights.

 

  • Ryan cosponsored a bill that could ban in-vitro fertilization, as well as many common forms of birth control, including the pill. It could also ban all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. He supported letting states prosecute women who have abortions and doctors who perform them.

 

  • Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps women fight for equal pay for equal work. He voted against repealing the discriminatory policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and supports writing discrimination into the Constitution by amending it to ban gay marriage.

 

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