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6 Worst Lies in Paul Ryan’s Speech
Think Progress / New Analysis
Published: Thursday 30 August 2012
Ryan described a GM plant that closed down in his hometown, Janesville, Wisconsin, and blamed Obama for breaking his promise to keep the plant open when he visited during his campaign. But Obama never made that promise.
Vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is taking flack on the morning news shows for his keynote address at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night. His speech was riddled with false claims, so much so that even Fox News wrote, “To anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”
Here are the most glaring lies from his speech:
1. “A downgraded America.” Ryan blamed the president for the nation’s credit downgrade in August 2011 after Republicans threatened to allow the government to default on its debt for the first time in history. But the ratings agency explicitly blamed “Republicans saying that they refuse to accept any tax increases as part of a larger deal.”
2. “More debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined.” Romney has made the almost identical claim, that Obama has amassed more debt “as almost all of the other presidents combined.” But their math doesn’t add up: when Obama took office, the national debt was $10.626 trillion. It has increased to slightly above $15 trillion.
3. Shuttered General Motors plant is “one more broken promise.” Ryan described a GM plant that closed down in his hometown, Janesville, Wisconsin, and blamed Obama for breaking his promise to keep the plant open when he visited during his campaign. But Obama never made that promise, and the plant shut down in December 2008, before Obama even took office.
4. Obama “did exactly nothing” on Bowles-Simpson. Ryan said, “He 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.” In fact, Ryan was instrumental in sabotaging the commission, leading the other House Republicans in voting against the plan.
5. “$716 billion, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.” Ryan’s favorite lie is a deliberate distortion of Obamacare’s savings from eliminating inefficiencies. Furthermore, Ryan’s own plan for Medicare includes these savings. Romney has vowed to restore these cuts, which would render the trust fund insolvent 8 years ahead of schedule.
6. “The greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak.”Ryan closed the speech with an invocation of social responsibility, saying, “The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.” However, numerous clergy members have condemned Ryan’s budget plan as “cruel,” and “an immoral disaster” because of its devastating cuts in social programs the poor and sick rely on. Meanwhile, Ryan would give ultra-rich individuals and corporations $3 trillion in tax breaks.
13 comments on "6 Worst Lies in Paul Ryan’s Speech"
September 02, 2012 12:01pm
Re: the infamous $176 billion, it's my understanding that Ryan shepherded the same amount within his budget, as chair of the Budget Committee, (for two years) but the cuts were actual cuts in Medicare service, which he used for deficit reduction, whereas Obama's so-called cut was a shifting of money that cut inefficiencies by adding more coverage for more people and cuts profits for hospitals and insurance companies. This part of the overhaul extends Medicare solvency for eight years.
August 30, 2012 5:05pm
test
WA
August 30, 2012 4:45pm
Surprised that FOX TV calls Ryan a liar? Not me, television-Los Angeles will not permit a Mormon to be President! Easy, and, just as I've been saying, television starts to lay the groundwork for a Romney loss. But, first, they "balanced the vote" to make sure that maximum money rolls into show-business from both sides, only to tip the TV-hypnotized voters to Obama in the last few weeks of the election. Get confidence, think of two cities staring at each other, glaring with mutual hatred, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.... starting to see it? Face it, these elections will be "fair" on the face of it, but not so fair when you consider that the voters will vote just as television influences them to. It would have been quite different if Perry or Santorum had got the nomination, L.A. would have put them in but good, thank lady luck!
August 30, 2012 6:01pm
I pray to Moroni of the Golden Tablets to save us from Romoney / Rand and Gopcare! Remember -- the Gops won't -- what happened the last time we had a God fearing businessman as president? (Dubya had an MBA and ran three businesses into bankruptcy. Illegally sold his stock when he saw down the road in the third company. Never prosecuted of course.)
August 30, 2012 1:01pm
I didn't watch the Republican convention, specifically avoiding Ryan's speech, because I've been controlling my blood pressure and didn't want to elevate it. So I'll take the author's summary of the lies Ryan told, and feel glad I didn't watch it, or I might have thrown the remote at the TV screen, and I can't blame technology for the sins of the spokesmen for the 1%.
I have to wonder, why are all these Irish-Americans prostituting themselves to corporate America? Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Paul Ryan, all enemies of the working class. The Irish used to be part of the struggling class in our country; in fact, for a long time they were considered to be at the bottom of the class structure in white America. And even those who struck it rich, like the Kennedys, often went out of their way to help those not born with silver spoons in their mouths. But not anymore, it seems. Even the Catholic clergy criticized Ryan's budget plan as being too hard on those who had the least. But does this male prostitute with an Irish surname even care?
They shame their Celtic heritage, and the Church that always preached brotherly love, in my opinion. Father Flanagan, the country could use more of the likes of you now.
August 30, 2012 12:17pm
Still, there are many, many middle income working whites, a few African-Americans and Hispanics, maybe some Asian-Americans who are going to vote for the repugnant party this election. They will joined in this act by the Stepford wives. My hope is that it is not sufficient to put the r&r twins over the top.
August 30, 2012 11:31am
The GOP barking points appear to have morphed from a tissue of lies to a wash and wear fabric of lies that has become a one-size-fits-all garment they trot out when called upon to teeter on the party platform. They seem to count on their electorate remaining uninformed and apathetic to the inner workings of the Party Of No. That might explain the cuts to education and the support of privately owned media. Their revisionist history is mute testimony to their call for truth in government. As for the National Debt, Does anyone really know where the ubiquitous "unfunded mandates" of a former economically-challenged administration went? They surely couldn't have become part of the tremendous debt that Obama is being chastised for, could they, Oh, surely not!
August 30, 2012 10:19am
Self Taxation for the rich. Self Deporatation for immigrants. Self assistance for those in need. Self scavanging for the hungry. Self clothing for the naked. Etc.. The republicans/cancervatives are very self-ish.
August 30, 2012 7:01pm
Ryan - Romney or Romney -Ryan = Me, Myself, and I, they are on the same page when the issue is Justice, Liberty,and Freedom , Loop Holes and Taxs Invasions !!!
August 30, 2012 10:07am
Somehow everyone seems to have missed one of the biggest missrepresentations of all. Ryan described how he wants to change Medicare for future retirees to include a choice between standard Medicare (fee for service) and private insurance plans. The cry from the media is that such a change would kill Medicare as we know it. But that's not true. Mr. Ryan's idea actually exists today. In fact, it's up and running and many seniors just love it. You see, it's called "Medicare Advantage" and that is exactly how it works. If a senior chooses Medicare Advantage they get to select a program offered by a private insurance company. Medicare pays the premiums. Some of these plans even include dental and vision care which standard Medicare does not.
The problem is that for a number of years the government has been subsidising this program to the tune of about 114% of standard Medicare. That's a major part of the savings (the sinister $716 Billion) President Obama plans to use to support other options for seniors. So the Romney/Ryan idea is simply not anything new, they just want to spend less to support it. There are other ways to solve the Medicare shortfall without pushing the burden onto seniors.
August 30, 2012 10:55am
You are correct about the Medicare Advantage payoff to the leeches in the private, for-profit, middleman insurance corporations...the 14% subsidy for no good reason...
You are correct that the ephemeral $741 billion 'cost savings' that the hypothetical ObamaRyan plans postulate will come out of the projected GROWTH of the Medicare Advantage give-away over the next 10 years. That equals a "savings" of 2.7% -- big whoop...
You are incorrect in most of your other points.The "advantage plans" that "offer" dental and vision or "full coverage" have rather large ADDITIONAL monthly costs...more than most of us seniors can afford to pay.
The reality though is that Obama assumes (in his "program") that the existing Medicare Disadvantage, that is the reliance on the last, creaking, dying, failing for-profit sick care system in the developed world, with little or no cost controls can be perpetuated by applying a few "regulations" and tossing gobs of uncontrolled money at the for-profit sick care leeches.
While Ryan assumes that the magical, mythical market that CREATED our failing system will somehow be able to fix it (somehow eschew the profit motive that drives it) if instead of guaranteed COVERAGE seniors were bamboozled while young and healthier into buying into a pie-in-the-sky, privatized voucher system with which to "buy" inferior "insurance". In the meantime, they will still be captives of the for-profit sick care abomination.
What we NEED is to take a look at the successful NOT FOR PROFIT HEALTH CARE systems already working very well for EVERY other industrialized nation AT LESS THAN 1/2 THE COST and craft an Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All worth everyone's buy-in.
You want "freedom"? How about freedom from having your health determined by profit-seeking CEOs, accountants, lawyers and your employer!
September 02, 2012 11:53am
I would add to what Jeffrey said that the Medicare Advantage that some seniors I know have, works best when they are rarely sick, have minor health problems, and use mostly preventive care services.
August 30, 2012 9:34am
The Mother of All Paul Ryan's Republican Convention LIES was the one about the social responsibility of caring for the weakest because Republicans like him are Ayn Rand-loving, GREEDY, Selfish, Money-Worshipping, Social Darwinist
Sociopaths and Psychopaths who believe they are morally superior to the parasitic useless eaters and working class peons simply because they have wealth obtained by any means necessary.