Paul Ryan Gets Booed by Constituents for Supporting Tax Cuts for Rich

By: Hrafnkell HaraldssonApr. 21st, 2011more from Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Paul Ryan's "Let Them Eat Cake" Budget

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), of House budget “Path to Prosperity” infamy got himself booed at a town hall appearance in the town of Milton, which is in his own district. His support for tax cuts for the rich wasn’t selling. Imagine that, people tired of paying their hard-earned money to support the lifestyles of the rich and shameless.

A man in the crowd, who identified himself as a lifelong conservative, spoke for the vast majority of Americans when he said, quite truthfully, “The middle class is disappearing right now. During this time of prosperity, the top 1 percent was taking about 10 percent of the total annual income, but yet today we are fighting to not let the tax breaks for the wealthy expire?”

Ryan tried to fob him off with the standard reply, a reply as dishonest as the man’s statement was honest: “We do tax the top.” The crowd didn’t let him get any further before they drowned his lying voice out with boos.

CONSTITUENT: The middle class is disappearing right now. During this time of prosperity, the top 1 percent was taking about 10 percent of the total annual income, but yet today we are fighting to not let the tax breaks for the wealthy expire? And we’re fighting to not raise the Social Security cap from $87,000? I think we’re wrong.

RYAN: A couple things. I don’t disagree with the premise of what you’re saying. The question is what’s the best way to do this. Is it to redistribute… (Crosstalk)

CONSTITUENT: You have to lower spending. But it’s a matter of there’s nothing wrong with taxing the top because it does not trickle down.

RYAN: We do tax the top. (Audience boos). Let’s remember, most of our jobs come from successful small businesses. Two-thirds of our jobs do. You got to remember, businesses pay taxes individually. So when you raise their tax rates to 44.8 percent, which is what the president is proposing, I would just fundamentally disagree. That is going to hurt job creation.

The question arising here is this: why is taxation of the wealthy abhorred by Tea Partier and Republican alike as “redistribution of wealth” but not the taxation of the working class? Any taxation is by its very nature a redistribution of wealth. To pretend there is any difference is absurd. And it looks like even conservatives may be coming to realize this.

There may be hope for America after all if the corporate anti-tax mantra comes a cropper in the Koch oligarchy’s heartland.

Paul Ryan Gets Booed by Constituents for Supporting Tax Cuts for Rich was written by Hrafnkell Haraldsson for PoliticusUSA.

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10 Responses to Paul Ryan Gets Booed by Constituents for Supporting Tax Cuts for Rich

Reynardine

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 7:29 am

Dawn is dawning here as I read this, and I hope it is dawning on Marblehead, too.
What do you think? 0 0
connie

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 8:51 am

The GOP can’t come up with a better solution than NO tax increase on the millionaires and billionaires, b/c $250,000. are a lot of small business owners? Gee, how about increasing taxes on the people who make over 1 million in gross profits then?
but then…how many politicians are millionaires? They don’t want to increase THEIR OWN TAXES. And get rid of all those loopholes….they use.
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- Boscoe
  
  Apr. 21st, 2011 at 1:43 pm
  
  Seems obvious, doesn’t it? :)
  
  That’s what makes it so clear these asshats are just disingenuous lackeys of the rich. The stuff they say doesn’t even hold up to the most basic tests of simple logic.
  
  They’re basically saying that in order to create jobs, we need to let the wealthy put more money in their swiss bank accounts (I think Ryan needs a dictionary so he can understand the definition of “wealthy” and stop pretending that these guys are living paycheck to paycheck) and also cut 700,000 govt jobs.
  
  Seriously, creating jobs by firing people. huh? Wha? I get whiplash from listening to these people…
  What do you think? 0 0
Anne

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 9:38 am

I’m quite sure the good people of Wisconsin are thoroughly fed up with the actions of their sorry excuse for a governor, Scott Walker. Paul Ryan is another Republican who leaves a bad taste in his state, and I love the fact that even conservatives there are waking up to the fact that they are being sold a bogus bill of goods. By all accounts, Ryan’s proposed budget would create a lot more problems and solve none. I just hope that this is only the beginning of a national awakening to the destructive policies of the GOP.
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Shiva (Moderator)

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 9:43 am

Mr Ryan has seemed to forget that only 2% of the wealthy provide jobs for anyone. So any claims he makes of taxing the wealthy affects jobs is absolutely false as one would suspect. It’s apparent that this lie can no longer be foisted even upon his own followers. Mr. Ryan might want to remember that those people who addressed him as lifelong conservatives may not be the ones who votes for him next time when his term comes up. The hope is that people begin to vote their knowledge instead of their party.

you make an excellent point about taxing the wealthy is redistribution but taxing the poor to maintain the wealthy is not. this form of leadership must be done away with as soon as possible. Turning your head on real revenue and only thinking of taxing the poor is not the American way
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Sarah Jones

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 12:14 pm

Great article — this was a turning point. And good for all of those folks who turned up for the townhall — get out to your townhalls people. It matters.
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Goddess

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 3:46 pm

Poor little Eddie Munster…
What do you think? 0 0
Nefti

Apr. 21st, 2011 at 9:02 pm

i hope he has a whole bunch of town meetings ..of course..he’ll go on tv and say the people have spoken..they have asked me not to tax the rich!
you lie republicans!
What do you think? 0 0
Anne

Apr. 22nd, 2011 at 4:29 am

Last night, I watched the Ed Show on MSNBC. Ed Schultz interviewed former RNC chairman Michael Steele and 2 Republicans, one from Florida and the other from Ohio, on his show. The 2 Republicans have left the GOP as a direct result of what the governors in their respective states are doing. Michael Steele’s performance was a sorry spectacle, because he is an abject apologist for the GOP’s cutting of taxes for the rich. He even made it clear that he supports Paul Ryan’s idea of lowering the tax rate for them even farther. The two Republicans interviewed made it quite clear how the policies of the Tea Partier governors in their states have done so much damage in a short time. I really feel for the people in those states, as well as others, because they are saddled with clueless and heartless folks with no idea how to govern. The silver lining to the cloud is that more and more people are seeing the insane Republican Party for what it is and will vote accordingly in 2012.
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- Shiva (Moderator)
  
  Apr. 22nd, 2011 at 9:56 am
  
  I watched that too, Steele was a blubbering idiot
  What do you think? 0 0