"I'm so far to the right, my head is tilted that way."
Ryan’s Lie #1, Medicare:
Ryan said, “And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare
came at the expense of the elderly … So they just took it all away from
Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare
by President Obama.”
The
Truth: Barack Obama's budget plan calls for $716 billion in cuts to Medicare spending
over the next 10 years, but in reimbursements to insurers and hospitals, not in
payments to beneficiaries, which would be preserved. Ryan knows this because he
has written these same cuts in to successive drafts of his famed budget.
Obama
didn't make any cuts to Medicare benefits; he made cuts to provider
reimbursements, to improve cost efficiency and extend the fiscal security of
Medicare by eight years. According to the Medicare actuary, "[Obama's]
Affordable Care Act makes important changes to the Medicare program and
substantially improves its financial outlook.”
But
Ryan actually does want to cut benefits. He proposed dismantling Medicare and
replacing it with a voucher system, leaving millions of seniors to come up with
more money to pay for care out of pocket.
Ryan’s Lie #2, Ryan's
Hometown GM Plant:
Ryan said, “A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM
plant. Right there at that plant, Obama said: 'I believe that if our government
is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.'
That's what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last
another year.”
The
Truth: Obama wasn't even in office when the GM plant closed, and Obama never
made a promise to save it. Obama visited the plant as a presidential candidate
in February 2008. Four months later, GM announced the plant would drastically
scale back production. The plant laid off most of its workforce in December
2008, before Obama took office. The "government support" Obama spoke
of – his auto bailout plan, which took effect in early 2009 – did not arrive
early enough to save the Janesville plant, but it is credited with saving the
American auto industry.
Ryan’s Lie #3, Government
Debt:
Ryan said, “[Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came
back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then
did exactly nothing.”
The
Truth: In early 2010, Obama created a bipartisan committee known as
Bowles-Simpson to figure out how to balance the budget and hand its
recommendations to the president. The final draft of the committee's report
failed to win the necessary support of its members, however, falling three
votes short. Paul Ryan was on the committee, a fact that he neglected to
mention in his speech. In the straw poll on the final draft, he voted
"no" – against the plan that he now accuses the president of
ignoring.
Ryan’s Lie #4, Aid
to the Poor:
Ryan said, “We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each
face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the
strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats
those who cannot defend or care for themselves … We can make the safety net
safe again.”
The
Truth: If Paul Ryan's budget is notable for anything, it's for cuts to Medicaid
and other programs on which low-income households depend. As the Washington
Post economics blogger Ezra Klein
points out: "The Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities ran the numbers and said two-thirds of Ryan's cuts will end up
falling on programs for the poor."
Ryan
would cut Medicaid by one third, take away health care insurance from 30
million Americans, and cut Pell Grants for 1 million students. It would cut
home mortgage deductions, veteran's benefits, farm subsidies, and other aid
programs. All so that he could give more tax breaks to the rich.
“Our
problem with Representative Ryan is that he claims his budget is based on
Catholic social teaching,” said Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, of Georgetown.
“This is nonsense. As scholars, we want to join the Catholic bishops in
pointing out that his budget has a devastating impact on programs for the
poor.”
The
Catholic bishops noted that “the House-passed budget resolution fails to meet
these moral criteria.” Ryan dismissed the bishops’ critique, erroneously
claiming the letters didn’t represent “all the bishops,” a point the bishops’
media office denied. “I am afraid that
Chairman Ryan’s budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand
rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Father Reese. “Survival of the
fittest may be okay for Social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel
of compassion and love.”
Ryan’s Lie #5, Credit
Rating Downgrade:
Ryan said the president was responsible for
Standard and Poor's downgrading US credit from AAA to AA+ in August 2011. He
said of Obama's first term: “It
began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.”
The
Truth: The downgrade was the result of refusal of Republicans in Congress to vote to raise the debt ceiling, despite
pressure from the White House and most outside analysts. Ultimately the
Republicans capitulated, but the damage was done; days after the Budget Control
Act of 2011 was signed, the rating was cut.
In
its statement on the rationale behind the downgrade, Standard and Poor's blamed
the political circus: "The political brinksmanship of recent months
highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less
stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously
believed."
House
Republicans, including Paul Ryan, held the full faith and credit of the United
States hostage to try to ransom it for trillions of dollars in cuts to social
programs without increasing taxes on the wealthy one dime. Standard &
Poor's said specifically, "We have changed our assumption on [revenue]
because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure
that would raise revenues." That's why our nation's credit rating was
downgraded.
