Paul Ryan's Multiple Lies: He Even Admits It

Former Bush political strategist Matthew Dowd
Paul Ryan’s speech before the Republican National Convention was riddled with lies, including a tall-tale blaming President Obama for the closure of a GM plant that announced its shutdown in June 2008. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Matthew Dowd, chief political strategist for former President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, criticized Ryan’s for its many falsehoods, saying, “at some point, the truth should matter”:
DOWD: Paul Ryan, what he did in his speech, I think so stretched the truth. And I like Paul Ryan, have a lot of great respect for Paul Ryan, but the elements that he said about closing the GM plant which closed before Barack Obama took President [sic], about the Simpson-Bowles bill which he opposed and then all of a sudden he faults Barack Obama for. At some point, the truth should matter…He was trying to convey that Barack Obama was responsible for the closing of that GM plant and that isn’t true.


Paul Ryan, like all House Republicans, voted against the stimulus package. Then Paul Ryan, like a bunch of House Republicans, wrote letters to federal agencies requesting stimulus funds for his district. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this – if there’s money on the table, you’re not doing your job as a legislator unless you try to grab some of it – but it does smack of hypocrisy. That’s especially true if you deny writing the letters and then get presented with them:

After repeated denials, Paul Ryan has admitted he requested stimulus cash even after sharply criticizing the program.

Ryan had denied doing so as recently as Wednesday, when he spoke to ABC’s Cincinnati affiliate, WCPO, in Ohio.

“I never asked for stimulus,” Mitt Romney’s new running mate said. “I don’t recall… so I really can’t comment on it. I opposed the stimulus because it doesn’t work, it didn’t work.”

Two years ago, during an interview on WBZ’s NewsRadio he was asked by a caller if he “accepted any money” into his district. Ryan said he did not.

“I’m not one [of those] people who votes for something then writes to the government to ask them to send us money. I did not request any stimulus money,” the congressman answered.

But as we’ve now learned, Ryan did write letters. He did request stimulus funds.

Ryan now calls the letters “part of constituent service.” Which is fine. But I think the casual lying in service to ideology matters more here. And it’s part of a pattern for a guy who’s only appeared on the national stage for a week. Ryan spent yesterday railing against China for manipulating its currency despite spending his entire career in Congress opposing measures that would have cracked down on Chinese currency manipulation and other unfair trade practices. Ryan has now done a triple flip on the Medicare savings in the Affordable Care Act, saying that they “were already in the baseline” and that’s how they made their way into his budget, and then disavowing his own budget by saying he would restore the “cuts” (which is another way of saying he would restore wasteful subsidies to Medicare Advantage and reimbursements to hospitals they have already agreed to forego).

Ryan tries to parry these clear flip-flops and dissembling statements by saying “I don’t want to get wonky on you” over and over. But these aren’t obscure, technical things that anyone would have trouble figuring out. Paul Ryan lies a lot. Period.



and.......

Once Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan declared they were not going to have their campaigns dictated by “fact checking,” the Republican presidential contenders put the American public on notice that we had in fact entered a post-factual era of political campaigns. So the fact that Ryan lied in his speech at the Republican National Committee is in some ways a non-story. Romney and Ryan announced their intention to lie during their campaign and Ryan’s speech was simply making good on that promise.

For women voters though, the brazen nature of Ryan’s lies, and the comfort in which he let them slide right off his tongue presents a very specific problem because there’s no area where Ryan lies quite so comfortably as he does when stumping on issues that hit women voters hardest: health care, Medicare and abortion.

The lies Paul Ryan tells are not just about deceiving voters, they reflect a worldview shared among certain elements of the conservative movement that voters, but particularly women, are not to be trusted with the necessary details of crafting policy and governing. We see this not just in Ryan’s willingness to lie about his plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system, but his embrace of laws like informed consent abortion restrictions. Supporters justify those laws, embodied in mandatory ultrasounds, mandatory waiting periods and mandated (and demonstrably false) medical risk disclosures, by claiming that women are unable to competently make a decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy without substantial and direct assistance and interference by the state.

Contrast Ryan’s broad support of informed consent laws in the context of abortion with his opposition to financial services disclosures. If more information is better to make serious, adult decisions, then why does this not apply to situations where millions of dollars are at risk?

Of course, there’s a real danger in Ryan’s game, and that is that it works. “Paul Ryan may believe that he can hide his destructive views on both social and economic issues, but women voters know exactly how his extremist agenda will impact their lives,” said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY’s List.

Recent EMILY’s List research showed that independent women voters overwhelmingly disapproved of policies detailed in the Ryan Plan.

· 65% of independent women surveyed found a plan to reduce critical services for seniors like Medicare a convincing reason to vote against Republicans running for Congress.

· 69% think that shifting the cost of preventative healthcare services like mammograms to women is a convincing reason to vote against Republicans running for Congress.

· 70% found policies that favor the rich at the expense of middle class families a convincing reason to vote against Republicans running for Congress.

So yes, Paul Ryan is a liar. That much is not news, nor is it news that given the unpopularity of his domestic policy positions Ryan would do what he can to try and hide the details from the voting public. But what we should be talking about is what that willingness says about Ryan’s views of voters, particularly women voters, and how that would translate in a Romney-Ryan administration.



Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/what-paul-ryans-lies-say-about-his-views-of-women-voters.html#ixzz25LEsRa4F

Birdofthad wrote:

Former Bush political strategist Matthew Dowd
Paul Ryan’s speech before the Republican National Convention was riddled with lies, including a tall-tale blaming President Obama for the closure of a GM plant that announced its shutdown in June 2008. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Matthew Dowd, chief political strategist for former President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, criticized Ryan’s for its many falsehoods, saying, “at some point, the truth should matter”:
DOWD: Paul Ryan, what he did in his speech, I think so stretched the truth. And I like Paul Ryan, have a lot of great respect for Paul Ryan, but the elements that he said about closing the GM plant which closed before Barack Obama took President [sic], about the Simpson-Bowles bill which he opposed and then all of a sudden he faults Barack Obama for. At some point, the truth should matter…He was trying to convey that Barack Obama was responsible for the closing of that GM plant and that isn’t true.

.

The Washington Post and the liberal “fact checkers” immediately declared that yes, the Badger-Paul Ryan had lied— that the plant closed under George Bush. Except that it didn’t, unless George Bush was President in June 2009. And Ryan’s point was to highlight Obama’s declaration while a candidate that government, in particular the stimulus program, would save plants like the one in Janesville that had been slated to close — which it didn’t do. In fact, because of Obama’s economic policies, the plant is still closed to this day, like so many others around the country.

All of these things are facts.

Which, it turns out, were easy enough to check. So let’s go to the transcript, Feb 13, 2008 — which, in addition to showing Ryan to be exactly right in what he said, also highlights many of Obama’s very own lies

So today, I’m laying out a comprehensive agenda to reclaim our dream and restore our prosperity. It’s an agenda that focuses on three broad economic challenges that the next President must address – the current housing crisis; the cost crisis facing the middle-class and those struggling to join it; and the need to create millions of good jobs right here in America– jobs that can’t be outsourced and won’t disappear.

The first challenge is to stem the fallout from the housing crisis and put in place rules of the road to prevent it from happening again.

A few weeks ago I offered an economic stimulus package based on a simple principle – we should get immediate relief into the hands of people who need it the most and will spend it the quickest. I proposed sending each working family a $500 tax cut and each senior a $250 supplement to their Social Security check. And if the economy gets worse, we should double those amounts.

Neither George Bush nor Hillary Clinton had that kind of immediate, broad-based relief in their original stimulus proposals, but I’m glad that the stimulus package that was recently passed by Congress does. We still need to go further, though, and make unemployment insurance available for a longer period of time and for more Americans who find themselves out of work. We should also provide assistance to state and local governments so that they don’t slash critical services like health care or education.

For those Americans who are facing the brunt of the housing crisis, I’ve proposed a fund that would provide direct relief to victims of mortgage fraud. We’d also help those who are facing closure refinance their mortgages so they can stay in their homes. And I’d provide struggling homeowners relief by offering a tax credit to low- and middle-income Americans that would cover ten percent of their mortgage interest payment every year.

To make sure that folks aren’t tricked into purchasing loans they can’t afford, I’ve proposed tough new penalties for those who commit mortgage fraud, and a Home Score system that would allow consumers to compare various mortgage products so that they can find out whether or not they’ll be able to afford the payments ahead of time.

The second major economic challenge we have to address is the cost crisis facing the middle-class and the working poor. As the housing crisis spills over into other parts of the economy, we’ve seen people’s entire life savings wiped out in an instant. It’s the result of skyrocketing costs, stagnant wages, and disappearing benefits that are pushing more and more Americans towards a debt spiral from which they can’t escape. We have to give them a way out by cutting costs, putting more money in their pockets, and rebuilding a safety net that’s become badly frayed over the last decades.

One of the principles that John Edwards has passionately advanced is that this country should be rewarding work, not wealth. That starts with our tax code, which has been rigged by lobbyists with page after page of loopholes that benefit big corporations and the wealthiest few. For example, we should not be giving tax breaks to corporations that make their profits in some other country with some other workers. Before she started running for President, Senator Clinton actually voted for this loophole.

I’ll change our tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and advances opportunity, not the agenda of some lobbyist. I am the only candidate in this race who’s proposed a genuine middle-class tax cut that will provide relief to 95% of working Americans. This is a tax cut –paid for in part by closing corporate loopholes and shutting down tax havens – that will offset the payroll tax that working Americans are already paying, and it’ll be worth up to $1000 for a working family. We’ll also eliminate income taxes for any retiree making less than $50,000 per year, because our seniors are struggling enough with rising costs, and should be able to retire in dignity and respect. Since the Earned Income Tax Credit lifts nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty each year, I’ll double the number of workers who receive it and triple the benefit for minimum wage workers. And I won’t wait another ten years to raise the minimum wage – I’ll guarantee that it keeps pace with inflation every single year so that it’s not just a minimum wage, but a living wage. Because that’s the change that working Americans need.

My universal health care plan brings down the cost of health care more than any other candidate in this race, and will save the typical family up to $2500 a year on their premiums. Every American would be able to get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves, and we’d ban insurance companies from denying you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And the main difference between my plan and Senator Clinton’s plan is that she’d require the government to force you to buy health insurance and she said she’d ‘go after’ your wages if you don’t. Well I believe the reason people don’t have health care isn’t because no one’s forced them to buy it, it’s because no one’s made it affordable – and that’s what we’ll do when I am President.

If we want to train our workforce for a knowledge economy, it’s also time that we brought down the cost of a college education and put it within reach of every American. I know how expense this is. At the beginning of our marriage, Michelle and I were spending more to payoff our college loans than we were on our mortgage. So I’ll create a new and fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, a benefit that students will get in exchange for community or national service, which will cover two-thirds of the tuition at the average public college or university. And I’ll also simplify the financial aid application process so that we don’t have a million students who aren’t applying for aid because it’s too difficult.

With so many mothers and fathers juggling work and parenting, the next cost we have to bring down is the cost of living in a two-income family. I’ll expand the child care tax credit for people earning less than $50,000 a year, and I’ll double spending on quality afterschool programs. We’ll also expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; and we’ll change a system that’s stacked against working women by requiring every employer to provide seven paid sick days a year, so that you can be home with your child if they’re sick.

In addition to cutting costs for working families, we also need to help them save more – especially for retirement. That’s why we’ll require employers to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings. You can keep this account even if you change jobs, and the federal government will match the savings for lower-income, working families.

Finally, we need to help families who find themselves in a debt spiral climb out. Since so many who are struggling to keep up with their mortgages are now shifting their debt to credit cards, we have to make sure that credit cards don’t become the next stage in the housing crisis. To make sure that Americans know what they’re signing up for, I’ll institute a five-star rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk involved in every credit card. And we’ll establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban unilateral changes to a credit card agreement; ban rate changes to debt that’s already incurred; and ban interest on late fees. Americans need to pay what they owe, but they should pay what’s fair, not what fattens profits for some credit card company.

The same principle should apply to our bankruptcy laws. When I first arrived in the Senate, I opposed the credit card industry’s bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt. Five years earlier, Senator Clinton had supported a nearly identical bill. And during a debate a few weeks back, she said that even though she voted for it, she was glad it didn’t pass. Now, I know those kind of antics might make sense in Washington, but they don’t make much sense anywhere else, and they certainly don’t make sense for working families who are struggling under the weight of their debt.

When I’m President, we’ll reform our bankruptcy laws so that we give Americans who find themselves in debt a second chance. I’ll close the loophole that allows investors with multiple homes to renegotiate their mortgage in bankruptcy court, but not victims of predatory lending. We’ll make sure that if you can demonstrate that you went bankrupt because of medical expenses, then you can relieve that debt and get back on your feet. And I’ll make sure that CEOs can’t dump your pension with one hand while they collect a bonus with the other. That’s an outrage, and it’s time we had a President who knows it’s an outrage.

[...]

This can be America’s future. I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday, and I know how hard your Governor has fought to keep jobs in this plant. But I also know how much progress you’ve made – how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you’re churning out. And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it’s where it will thrive. I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America; right here in Wisconsin; and that’s the future I’ll fight for as your President.

My energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. We’ll also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.

We know that all of this must be done in a responsible way, without adding to the already obscene debt that has grown by four trillion dollars under George Bush. We know that we cannot build our future on a credit card issued by the bank of China. And that is why I’ve paid for every element of this economic agenda – by ending a war that’s costing us billions, closing tax loopholes for corporations, putting a price on carbon pollution, and ending George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

In the end, this economic agenda won’t just require new money. It will require a new spirit of cooperation and innovation on behalf of the American people. We will have to learn more, and study more, and work harder. We’ll be called upon to take part in shared sacrifice and shared prosperity. And we’ll have to remind ourselves that we rise and fall as one nation; that a country in which only a few prosper is antithetical to our ideals and our democracy; and that those of us who have benefited greatly from the blessings of this country have a solemn obligation to open the doors of opportunity, not just for our children, but to all of America’s children.

That is the spirit that’s thrived in Janesville from the moment that first tractor came off the assembly line so many years ago. It’s the spirit that led my grandmother to her own assembly line during World War II, and my grandfather to march in Patton’s Army. When that war ended, they were given the chance to go to college on the GI Bill, to buy a house from the Federal Housing Authority, and to give my mother the chance to go to the best schools and dream as big as the Kansas sky. Even though she was a single mom who didn’t have much, it’s the same chance she gave me, and why I’m standing here today.

It’s a promise that’s been passed down through the ages; one that each generation of Americans is called to keep – that we can raise our children in a land of boundless opportunity, broad prosperity, and unyielding possibility. That is the promise we must keep in our time, and I look forward to working and fighting to make it real as President of the United States. Thank you.”



Turns out that Obama didn’t fight for gms bond holders, investors and for the Janesville plant so much as he rewarded his bundler pals and wasted money on chimeras like Solyndra.

The truth hurts sometimes. And the last thing we need right now is mindless followers — and its media lapdogs — telling us that we shouldn’t believe what we know to be true: Obama’s policies have failed us while succeeding at what they were truly designed to do: create a more dependent society, then try to buy votes with promises to help you through the tough times that he set out to create as part of the “fundamental transformation” of an uppity imperial power due for some post-colonial payback.