“I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power,” Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said.
Within the first moments of his RNC speech, Ryan had captured the nation’s frustration with his own party. Quick to deny the Bush years and grasping desperately for power, the Republican Party is willing to win by any means necessary.
They have created voter ID laws to disqualify demographics unlikely to vote for them. They initiated voter suppression campaigns to restrict early voting, and in Ryan’s case, they have perverted facts to support their arguments. Ryan proved himself charismatic, but his speech was riddled with lies, omissions, and misrepresentations.
Ryan blamed President Barack Obama for failing to save a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis. The critique was touching and resonated with the audience. Unfortunately, Ryan’s comment lacked important contextual information. Obama visited the Janesville plant while campaigning for presidency. On Dec. 23, 2008, before Obama took office, the plant ended most of its production and laid off the majority of its workforce. It closed in April 2009, terminating its last 57 employees. Although Ryan’s comment was factually correct, the information he withheld made it misleading — the decision to shut down the plant had been made under Bush’s presidency.
Ryan also failed to mention that General Motors just turned its largest profit ever. He did not restrict his lies to Obama. He blatantly misrepresented himself.
As usual, Ryan attacked the stimulus bill. He lied about asking for and accepting stimulus money. Letters written to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, in which Ryan requested stimulus money, have surfaced. He was forced to admit his request and acceptance of stimulus funds, but continues to bash the stimulus bill.
Ryan stated that “nearly one in six Americans is in poverty,” yet he is eager to gut government programs that act as safety nets to vulnerable Americans while granting $10 trillion in tax cuts to top earners. You could call Ryan Robin Hood’s nemesis, stealing from the poor to help cushion the already well-cushioned wallets of the wealthy.
He reprimanded Obama for “siphoning” $716 billion from Medicare, a claim that was incredibly misleading. The number Ryan is referring to is the savings expected to accrue over the first 10 years of the Affordable Care Act, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. By cutting reimbursements to hospitals and insurance providers Obama will save Medicare $716 billion dollars. These savings do not cost Medicare recipients money but they create money to counter the deficit.
Restoring the reimbursements, as Romney plans to do, would increase Medicare recipients’ costs by hundreds of dollars a year and make Medicare insolvent by 2016. Ryan understands this, which is why he drafted the very savings he crucified Obama for into his House budget.
As Romney pollster, Neil Newhouse stated “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers;” and for once, their camp wasn’t lying.
Reach the columnist at cmjacks7@asu.edu or on Twitter at @JacksonCrista.
