An Answer to Moivory’s question on Paul Ryan

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It is more than evident thatthe diseases of misinformation as well as blatant disinformation have takencomplete control of Americans in pandemic proportions resulting in vertiginousoutcomes. This morning while in the truck I was listening to talk radio asusual. Given it was too late for NPR; I turned to WAOK, a radio station inAtlanta that only promotes talk radio programming.  Unfortunately this episode was all talk,little fact and even less substance. Listening to the host, Mo Ivory, it wasreminiscent of something I had read by Daniel Foster. For listening to the hostramble on about Paul Ryan, Romney and President Obama was fit of hisdescription of being “a mélange of relentlessly provocative half-insightsgarbled by ponderous jargon…delivered by a narrator who seems to delight in[their] unreliability.” For as like Conservative Talk Radio, she too was allvenerate in her support of Obama as they are of Conservative stalwarts – sincethere was nothing said to inform an already dumbed down audience.

First there was the rant thatsuggested since Romney introduced Ryan as the next President, that it showed hewas not prepared and unfit to be President. Although several callers correctlyinformed her that Obama did the same thing, she asked that they show her proofcommenting that they are all hypotheticals and can’t back up what they withfacts. Next she attacked a caller who correctly discussed capitalism without apolitical slant and she cut him off saying that he was trying to make it arepublican and democratic issue (she has poor listening skills). After a fewstatements addressed to vilify Mr. Ryan, asserting that he had ran a state or abudget, another caller confronted her on this and indicated that neither hadObama, since he had not been a governor of a state or balanced a budget (bothjobs off the governor). He was attacked as well and here logic then morphedinto being in state politics.
None the less her question,which she never supported or answered was would Ryan be a benefit or liabilityfor the November 2012 election. So to assist her I will provide a substantiveargument to answer her query and suggest why Ryan will be a liability. I hopeif she reads this it will assist her in the future.
If President Obama had anybrains, Romney’s selection of Ryan as his running mate would be like a baseballset on a tee. First, his record or lack of record over a thirteen year careerin government would be the ball. During the bush years, Ryan voted for andhelped to pass Medicare part D (prescription drug benefit) which just happenedto be the largest entitlement since the days of FDR and added trillions to themassively underfunded Medicaid/Medicare system. He was also one of the twenty Republicans who voted for TARP and evenpleaded for others in the GOP to follow suit. Not only did he support the bailout of Wall Street but of the autoindustry as well.
During the Obamaadministration, many of the issues that most knowledgeable Americans which areso vehemently against and see as a threat to individual as I do – NDAA, ThePatriot Act and Funding for the Libyan war – he voted for and helped getpassed. Which reminds me that also under the Bush administration, he voted forthe war in Iraq without it being paid for as a supposed conservative fiscalhawk. These are actions that some in the Tea party will not forget or forgiveand will likely isolate a majority of independent voters.
Now some may say I am wrong,that his affiliation with the former senator Jack Kemp will do him somegood.  I think it will work againsthim.  See, I remember Jack Kemp, even rememberseeing him on Monday Night football playing quarterback for the Buffalo Billsand the LA Rams before that.  He is thecomplete antithesis of Kemp.  To startwith, It was Kemp who noted and informed conservative neocons that the war inIraq was unnecessary and would only serve to weaken America economically and bea major waste of our resources.  UnlikeRyan, Kemp has been described by some as an “optimistic realist” who authoredand passed legislation for years in the congress. Ryan over his tenure in Washingtonas authored or passed any major legislation on his own. Not to mention I can’tever recall Jack Kemp ever voting for a tax increase then turn around and sayhe was against tax hikes – as Ryan’s record reveals.  Plus Jack Kemp looked out for the poor firstand was inclusive of both the poor and minorities when authoring hislegislation.
Even staying on his budget maybe enough for Obama to pounce.  I won’tdiscuss the stuff most talk about (Medicare/Medicaid, cuts in education, headstart and college aid), but will point out that it does include increasingPentagon spending by $20 billion and overall it is just a plan for facilitatinga plutocratic transfer of wealth.  Onsecond thought maybe Obama should shy away from such since his economic proposalsdo the same? But if he does, he should attack his logic, for Ryan blames majorentitlement programs for our impending fiscal cliff and doesn’t even includethe cost of unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (if I take him from what hesaid in his speech to the Alexander Hamilton Society).
If Obama wanted to play dirty,he could use the Reverend Wright card and hit below the belt for Ryan’s firm beliefin the philosophical views of Ayn Rand. In her 1943 novel “The Fountain head”(if you all recall or ever read it), the in the end of the book the maincharacter blows up a home for mentally retarded orphans.  If this is too low for Obama, then attack himon his profiting on insider information to avoid the 2008 crash.  According to an article published in theRichmonder Newspaper, Ryan was part of a closed door meeting with FederalReserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and othercongressional leaders on September 18, 2008 that informed the congress of theimpending economic collapse and to get them to pass the TARP legislation.  The article continues: “on that very same dayPaul Ryan sold shares of stock he owned in several troubled banks, andreinvested the proceeds in Goldman Sachs, a bank that the meeting had disclosedwas not in trouble.” They even provide a link of PDF files of his transactions.
Now I could continue but insummary, the point is that Obama should have no problem dealing with aRomney-Ryan ticket if he has half a brain. Thus he being selected as Romney’srunning mate is more of a liability in the bigger picture than an asset.