Pants on Fire # 17: R and R Really Care About You

The Lie: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan really care about the 100 percent. They have a plan to create jobs, reduce the deficit, and take care of the people in this country (those Mr. Romney called the 47 percent and Mr. Ryan called the 30 percent) who are for no fault of their own out of work, in poor health, or for whatever reason suffering in poverty.

The Truth: Yeah, they care, as Paul Ryan said in a speech yesterday in Cleveland. They care so much that they think the poor should just suck it up. If you can't get a job, tough luck. If you're sick, don't look to Medicaid or Medcare to help. If you have college student loans still hanging over your head, it's not their problem. 

According to the New York Times, not a bastion of liberal thought, Ryan said, “'In this war on poverty, poverty is winning.' What he didn’t say is that he and his budget have taken sides in that war — and not on the side of the poor."

The Times continued, "This is just the latest of Mitt Romney’s home-stretch attempts to kick up the dust of confusion, soften harsh rhetoric and policies, and slip into the White House." Yes, Dear Readers, the New York Times said that! Amazing, but true.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan touted his budget proposal in Washington on Aug. 11.

    "But there’s a problem: Ryan’s budget was actually printed — on paper, at that. It was passed by the House in March. It can be examined and evaluated.

    "At one point on Wednesday, Ryan said: 'Where government is entrusted with providing a safety net, Mitt Romney and I have our own vision for how to keep it strong.'"

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported in March: "House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan would get at least 62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means. This stands a core principle of President Obama’s fiscal commission on its head and violates basic principles of fairness."

So, that's the truth. Romney and Ryan really really really want people to vote for them, so they're pretending they care. They care so much that they are throwing the rest of us to the dogs of war. 

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Ryan is a Catholic, even though he has said his "hero" is Ayn Rand, not Jesus Christ) have written letters denouncing Ryan's budget. (And of course the nuns have been against it, as well as Ryan's women-hating ideas, all along.)

Ryan pretends that claiming that the "truth" is that "Mitt and I believe in true compassion and upward mobility" will fool us. And the "vision" they're offering, "based on real reforms for lifting people out of poverty”? 

That vision would “involve reduced eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP, coverage of fewer services, lower payments to providers, or increased cost sharing by beneficiaries—all of which would reduce access to care.” A new study by the Urban Institute finds that Ryan’s plan would reduce Medicaid enrollment by a whopping 50 percent.

Thanks, but no thanks, rich guys! 

Vote for Obama and  Biden unless you want to see such gigantic holes in the social safety net that those who are now suffering will have it even worse, and the future for those of us who are doing okay now will inevitably fall through those same holes.