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About a year ago, when Paul Ryan's original budget plan was unveiled, Mitt Romney was not yet an announced presidential candidate, and went to great lengths to avoid endorsing the far-right agenda. Romney dodged questions for months, until reporters eventually gave up asking.
That changed in December, when Romney found his presidential campaign in a bit of trouble, and discovered he had to work harder to prove his conservative bona fides. On Dec. 8, the Romney campaign boasted, "Mitt Romney supports what Paul Ryan did. He endorsed what Paul Ryan did." The campaign went even further soon after, attacking Newt Gingrich for failing to fully embrace the Ryan plan.
Eventually, after avoiding the subject for nearly a year, the former governor broke down and said out loud, "We're going to have to make changes like the ones Paul Ryan proposed."
That was in December. What, pray tell, does Romney think about Ryan's new-and-not-improved budget plan? Here's what the former governor said a campaign event yesterday:
"I'm very supportive of the Ryan budget plan. It's a bold and exciting effort on his part and on the part of the Republicans and it's very much consistent with what I put out earlier.... I applaud it. It's an excellent piece of work and very much needed."
There's not a lot of wiggle room here. "I'm very supportive of the Ryan budget plan" is not an ambiguous statement of support, no matter what Romney chooses to do with his Etch A Sketch.
This is no small development. On the contrary, it's arguably one of the most important policy developments of the year -- Romney is "very supportive" of a budget plan that ends Medicare's guaranteed benefit, takes health care coverage from millions, radically redistributes wealth in the wrong direction, slashes taxes on the very wealthy, and would "take food from poor children, make it harder for low-income students to get a college degree, and squeeze funding for research, education, and infrastructure."
Romney is "very supportive" of this plan -- and Democrats couldn't be happier about it.
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All you Democrats.... let's do a Luntz. Send a Luntz-O-gram to all your friends ...
It shall be referred to as The Republican , Mitts , or Paul Ryan's
Medicare Killing or Social Security Killing plan .
We have to be the ones to frame it like a death panel framed Obamacare
Take that Luntz
I kind of like Coupon Care.
It a Path to Poverty for the middle class.
Twitter tag #PathToPoverty has good stuff for retweeting. Let's use it.
More like, "Path to Oblivion."
There used to be a joke about historians being tired of the middle class: it was always "rising." Well, we're watching the end of that boring story.
From 3ChicsPolitico:
So why wouldn't Rmoney endorse Ryan's proposal?
Sounds like we’ve learned the key ingredient in Mr. Romney’s fourth, or will it be the fifth, “major economic speech.”
I'm still trying to figure who they're talking to. They're sure as hell not talking to me or my neighbor, or my family. Who are they talking to? My co-workers, NO. I'm not sure who they're referring to when they say The American people. It's not me I kind of doubt that it's anybody that I've talked to recently. Why are they only talking to The Rich americans? Why aren't they listening to us? I don't know many rich folk. I pay taxes yet I'm being totally ignored. I have a birth certificate from the U.S. I have been working since I was 13 and you would die laughing at my paycheck. Why can't they hear us?
Because that's who they know.
If you had anything worth saying, you'd own a NASCAR team.
Of course he will say "I supported the idea of cuts but did not have time to study the details." The key phrase is "it is very consistent with what I put out earlier". This can refer to his passing the remains of his breakfast.
Christmas comes early for Obama and the Dems.
Don't worry, Republicans. Politifact has got your back. And they're the most trusted name in news, right?
I'll say it again (and again). If the Democrats can't take this and spin it the right way, putting a bazillion dollars into ads for candidates at all levels that push the Republicans into a corner they can't get out of, we should disband as a political party.
This is a great time and place to start the pushback against right wing extremism.
You have to wait for the Republicans to vote on the budget in the House. Then the campaign ads can be made.
Mike, there's nothing to stop the ads from being made now. Just don't show them right away, that's all.
So let's see: Mitt Romney has come out against college aid, against low-income single moms and their children, against the elderly, against minorities, against unemployment insurance, against the unemployed, against health care, against fornicators, and now against letting anyone other than his children (and the kids of his buddies who own NFL or NASCAR teams) achieve a bit of the American dream.
Can I shake my Etch-A-Sketch and start the Republican Party all over again?
So either the GOP thinks that they've dumbed down enough Americans, or they figure NO ONE is WATCHING and they can spin it clean later? Hahahahahahaha - not by the time I'm finished plastering this E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E........
Ryan's budget is actually an attempt to decrease obesity in America. Once the Koch brothers get a monopoly on ramen noodles we are doomed.
I think they're all on drugs. Seriously. Downers or something.
Watched this on the War Room last night. The plan would cut apprx. 2 Trillion+ from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And Nothing from Defense. The plan is supposed to Balance the budget by 2040 - just in time for Ryan and Cronies to retire with big fat retirements and still leave a fiscal mess for my older kids and my grandkids and great grandkids. What's sad is is that the people in the REpublican party that embrace this will be 70 years+ old and wondering where their benefits are. Very sad.
Romney will have a failed plan under his belt, even before he loses the election. Ryan will go into his fourth straight year as head of the House Finance Committee without a budget. Sweet.
Time for Mitt to call the spin doctors at his super pac that can convince the right that day is really night. Don't forget he already said in front of APIC that he was severely conservative, and now he is not so much and there is actually room for change. Now it's like hitting a pinata. When will it burst open?
Republicans should be required to have a brain scan before being allowed to vote. Not one of them has a rational thought - even in an election year.
Romney will back anything that he thinks will get him closer to the White House - He really has no soul. As far as the Ryan Budget goes, it proves just how heartless the Republicans are. I made a video about the budget called "Why The Paul Ryan Budget Sucks" which you can see on Youtube.