Not Here to do the Decent Thing: Privatizing Medicare Ryan

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:39 am

Mitt Romney handed another gift to Democrats, by choosing Paul Ryan  as his running mate. His “philosophical” idol is Ayn Rand, except when the Catholic Church calls him out on it.

While all speculation focused on Rob Portman and Tim Pawlenty, Paul Ryan was the nightmare/bold choice behind the curtain.

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Yesterday, the Weekly Standard  reported that Scott Walker was assigned the task of selling Ryan to the less enthusiastic faction of the Republican Party, setting the stage for today’s anticipated announcement.

But let’s get back to why Conservatives are under the impression that Ryan is a gift to their cause.  From their perspective, with Ryan on the ticket, the campaign can be a discussion on issues like:

The size of government — small enough to regulate women’s vaginas, while submitting to corporate “people”.

Eliminating benefits like Medicare and social security that “you people” have paid into your entire working lives, in the name of eliminating what they call a culture of dependency on the government.

There are some who consider him a Washington insider who isn’t conservative enough.

Of course, anyone who gets his world view from a novel might have a few critics.

Ryan is also a good choice for Romney.  By comparison, Ryan is amateurish in the art of etch-sketching as we saw when he attempted to deny his admiration for Ayn Rand.  While Romney can help Ryan polish his skills in the art of etchasketching, Ryan can soothe the  ruffled feathers the Tea Party and the NRA.

Ok, enough of that, it’s more interesting to talk about how Privatize Medicare Ryan is a gift to the Democrats.

Privatize Medicare Ryan doesn’t have a national identity. The only identity Mitt Romney has is as a Romney Hood who isn’t Obama and will not answer questions about his tax returns, business experience or policies.  That means the Romney/Ryan ticket will have to try to develop both of their identities in the brief time before the election.

He is described as “bold” because his first great idea to control the deficit is pacing the burden on seniors by killing medicare and replacing it with a voucher program.   According to the Congressional Budget Office,  reducing the government’s debt would be born by seniors and the poor.

Ryan played a role in destroying our AAA credit rating during the debt ceiling crises last year; despite the fact that his own budget proposed a hike in the debt ceiling.

If the Romney/Ryan ticket was to be elected, it would be a national tragedy without question.   Ryan is the best thing that could happen for the Democrats – well except maybe Sarah Palin. Paul Ryan isn’t here to do the decent thing, he’s just here to take orders from Randian Libertarians like the Koch Brothers.

Image from Salon

Adalia Woodbury

Former contributor.