Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the Republicans' vice presidential nominee, will be in New Orleans today, speaking at an annual AARP gathering. It might be an awkward setting for the far-right lawmaker -- Ryan, of course, is perhaps best known for his budget plan that eliminates Medicare, replacing it with a privatized voucher system.
And while I'm sure Ryan will offer a spirited defense, and may even come up with a coherent explanation as to why he's outraged by the Medicare cuts in the Affordable Care Act that he also incorporated into his own budget plan, there's another issue that's worth some consideration.
BuzzFeed posted this audio clip today, noting Ryan's remarks to an Ayn Rand group in 2005, in which he endorsed a Randian vision on entitlements.
"Social Security right now is a collectivist system, it's a welfare transfer system," Ryan said.
Ryan continued, describing attempts by Republicans to privatize, laughing at using the word "personalizing" instead.
Ryan says "if we actually accomplish this goal of personalizing Social Security, think of what we will accomplish." He adds "every worker, every laborer in America will not only be a laborer but a capitalist. They will be an owner of society, they will be an owner and a participant of our free enterprise system, of our capitalist system."
The Wisconsin Republican went on to characterize Social Security's Democratic champions as "collectivist, class warfare-breathing demagogues."
And what, pray tell, has Ryan proposed as a replacement to Social Security? I'm glad you asked.
Sahil Kapur had a good report on this a few weeks ago.
One of Rep. Paul Ryan's many past proposals to remake the federal safety net included a sweeping plan to privatize Social Security and risk the program's solvency in attempting to save it. He championed the idea as recently as 2010 but pushed it under the rug the following year. Mitt Romney, who recently selected Ryan to be his vice presidential nominee, is steering clear of the plan.
The proposal was in Ryan's 2010 "Roadmap For America's Future," a broad blueprint to remake the federal budget which elevated the little-known congressman into the Republican Party's visionary. It involved shifting Social Security funds to private retirement accounts as well as reducing benefits and gradually raising the age of eligibility.
Over time, the Congressional Budget Office said, Social Security payouts would "be more uncertain, despite the guarantee, because returns on stocks and corporate bonds are risky." The plan seeks to protect against market fluctuations by guaranteeing seniors a rate return at least equal to the rate of inflation, and by shifting near-retirees' money from stocks to government bonds. But funding losses from stock market swings could endanger the solvency of the program.
The Ryan plan would have necessarily meant benefit cuts for 70 percent of Social Security beneficiaries -- while delivering a windfall to Wall Street.
In fairness, it's important to note that Ryan isn't still pushing this measure -- Medicare privatization remains a key element of Ryan's plan, but Social Security privatization does not.
That said, 2010 really wasn't that long ago -- if Obama quotes from 1998 matter, Ryan's legislative blueprint from two years ago counts -- and while Ryan isn't fighting for this proposal anymore, he hasn't denounced it, either. This, coupled with this 2005 speech in which he condemned Social Security as a "collectivist ... welfare transfer system," paints a picture of a Republican who doesn't think the program should exist at all.
Maybe someone at the AARP event should ask him about this.
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Well, I too, am opposed to Medicare. And Social Security. I think all Americans should be responsible citizens. They should "pay their own way", and not depend upon government to provide personal expenses.
But, until each one of us earns a decent yearly income- say, in the neighborhood of $100K, or more, we will NOT be able to pay our own way, save for our retirement, or become productive members of society.
I eagerly await Ryan's plans to achieve this income floor, for- as the Bible calls them- the "least of us."
Bad. Very bad.
These are not entitlement programs. Everyone seems to forget that we pay into Social Security and Medicare our whole lives. These are insurance programs with a defined payout when you retire. So we ARE paying our own way.
If these programs are privatized, I want the money that I have been paying into them for the last 20 years back.
I think we get confused about the word "entitlement".
I have paid into Social Security and Medicare so I am therefore entitled to receive the benefit when I retire.
So - yes they are entitlement programs.
When I retire, I will receive SS payments and Medicare coverage - not because I am a moocher - but because I have already "paid my own way".
The way they say the word entitlements, suggests negativity. If you watch the 47 tape Romney emphasizes the word quite nastily. The same tone is used when he says "the others" and that guy. Real nasty, like how Anne said "Stop it" to the reporter, scared the bajeebies out of me, the evil queen witch has spoken, is what it sounded like, very scolding. Who does she think she is? We must have rained on her parade. But, her imitation of a feminite, during the RNC made Norma Jeane gasp.
Dicknose Ryan just got booed at the AARP when he said he was going to repeal Obamacare.
It is fun watching the wheels come off.
Mr. Ryan , turn off Faux news ,it is clouding your judgement . This is not what America wants.
Medicare and Social Security are insurance. I've been paying my premiums from wages since I was 15. Saying I didn't earn SS benefits when I turn 65 is BS
Day... if you are going to quote the bible or God make sure you get it right. You are so offensive to me. Not for your beliefs on medicare or anything else. You offend me because as some Christians do with the bible and Christianity, you just took a little bite that suited your needs and forgot that there is a whole buffet there. oh and you will be waiting a long time...
Carrie, Day was being sarcastic
Quite obviously sarcastic!
I did pay my own way INTO medicare and social security. I definitely am ENTITLED to receive both! Darned repubnuts act like its a freebie! We worked for that!
What do you think that people are getting SS for free, the person pays their whole working life. It was our great Congress that stole the money from SS. At one time it was the biggest block of money in the world. Wake up, see how you are getting hood winked; getting feed a bunch of garbage.
Ryan is a toad.
That is an insult to a wonderful creature whose ancestors have been around far longer than we!
/snark
But toads are lovely!
Now, cockroaches...
More like a chameleon, or a toad trying to be a chameleon. He uses all the buzz words that allude to communism, which is supposed to make everyone recoil, then avoids the one word, privatize, that makes his true intention clear.
He wants to redistribute the wealth of 99% of the people of this country to the 1%, and then appease "the masses" by allowing (as he sees it) some of their own money to trickle back down to them. In his disdain for the vast majority, he's surprised when they don't swoon over his buzz words, and angry when they're not grateful for the trickle down.
The top 1% already own 93% of the total net worth of the United States...so I guess they only have 6% more to go and they'll leave us alone in the gutters.
"...every worker, every laborer in America will not only be a laborer but a capitalist. They will be an owner of society,..."
Pardon me and I could be wrong, but aren't Americans already part of that "capitalist system and owners of society" - I mean WE did bail out Wall Street, and they haven't paid ALL of that money back contrary to what WE have been told?!
GOTP wrong for America and working Americans, no vision, no leadership - just hang the people out to dry!! Vote them out in November!
I don't personally WANT to be a capitalist. I don't want to be involved with business at all. I know for a fact that I'm not qualified, nor am I willing to do the work that it takes to become qualified. I haven't got the time nor the money, nor can I afford to hire a specialist to do the work for me (I can't usually even afford a tax professional; I do that stuff myself, but the government helps by providing reasonably easily understood forms. I'm never sure my taxes are done efficiently, but what can I do?). I am of the opinion that we come together and pay into the system to become part of a community and share each other's strengths; otherwise why even bother to live in groups? I don't want the government to give me things; I expect to pay my taxes and to get benefits for said taxes. That's why I choose to live in a community. I wonder why radical republicans feel the need to live in society if they plan to either do everything themselves or hire others to do them for them?
After what happened in 2008, Ryan has a lot of nerve to say that.
How is it that a person invests 40+ a week in a company , and they are not considered part owners of that company in the 1st place ? we must counter long standing wacky conservative narratives like that also
Basic, Classic Economics, the common ground of Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand and every free market capitalist groups economic inputs into land, labor, and capital. Even cavemen had capital, i.e. clubs and other weapons to slay dinner. We have forgotten how to live on lots of labor and little capital, but as a species, until we create self-replicating robots to be our slaves capital is worthless without labor to operate it. At an individual level anyone who can set themselves up as a middle man in an MLM scheme, or millions of dollars to park in Treasury bonds for the interest, can live off Capital and other peoples labor. Only in a plutocracy can citizens only be capitalists, with no worker class. How ? By defining labor as slaves, proles (George Orwell), or non-citzens. Circa 1980 this was Freshmen Economics (Micro). Amazingly, I have seen current Degree Plans from an accredited, b&m, state university where one can get a four year business degree without any exposure to micro theory or price theory.
Exactly. I chose to be a small business owner-BUT I have rarely seen a business owner have the same respect for their employees as they do for themselves. The people who work WITH me make the product, they deliver it, they are the business as much as I am. I consider physical labor harder than being the owner, and have always tried to be as fair as possible in respect and payment. I don't understand the condescending attitude to the people who actually do the work. But I want to warn you all that those in charge have only the worst in mind for you. They remove unions to reduce your pay and working conditions. There is even a born again christian sect that teaches that one should work for free till you move up the latter and you will have people working for free for you. Conservatives have never been good with math as that is a pyramid scheme and can't be kept up very long before those at the bottom are left out.
We have one problem only-the wealthy pay 11% in taxes and that plus 2 unpaid for wars is the reason we have a deficit. They actually know we have no deficit. It's artificially created to cause fear in all of you and accept more austerity measures. Please don't let them do that to you. At some point I'm trying to get my math on a news outlet as it easily shows that if the rich pay their taxes, we'd have a 482 billion dollar surplus each year. Romney has taken more taxpayers money as an entitlement than most of us.
I just heard Ryan is bringing his Mommy to the speech! Yup, the mommy with the houses in Colorado, Wisconsin, and the ritziest place in all of Florida. She is a "snowbird", as Ryan himself described. For a "wonk", he sure is not very wonky. It's astounding how far Ryans star has faded...
This word, "wonky". I'm 56 and my entire life, I've used and heard it used to indicate something that "isn't quite right", or is a bit off-kilter. In this situation, I'd say the older usage fits Paul Ryan just fine.
I work in the medical field, and beyond all the other reasons not to mess with Medicare, is the fact that many of our elderly citizens just aren't up to the challenge presented by the insurance industry. It's difficult enough for me, and I work with it daily and think I have a pretty good grasp of it. I wish someone would bring this up in the discussions.
Lee Ann, it's almost impossible to navigate Medicare too but you are so right on...many of the elderly are not getting what they paid for because the system is so convoluted and complex it almost takes an attorney to follow the language and in my opinion it's designed that way on purpose. It increases the profit margin for insurers by default and should be against the law.
Agreed. But at least it doesn't have the profit margin of an insurance company. I think single payer and many other public offered businesses should exist because they don't strive for profit like "privatized" businesses. And this give some measure of competition to the private businesses who have gotten out of control.
Look at the post office. They profit 1 billion a year. So, the FedEx's and others lobbied to charge them a $5 billion a year up front charge for retirement 75 years down the line. They knew no business could survive with that kind of a pre-charge. And so soon, you may be paying $18.50-oh I'm sorry, FedEx charges $34 and up- to send a letter instead of 44 cents. You can see right there how much profit "privatization" makes. To Ryan, privatization means "I want your Medicare money too".
Well, if you're someone who's already assured you'll get Social Security and are so easily lead around by the nose that you've been convinced the worst problem the country faces is the GOP-caused debt problem, then you just might conclude that, HEY!, let's get rid of Social Security.
Actually, there's no shortage of these sort of people.
I'm not so sure, disgusted. While those who fall within the age range that Ryan (and Romney) assure will continue to draw Medicare and Social Security, thus unaffected by the proposed cuts and elimination, there are many within the same group that have children who will be hurt by the changes. Not everyone is from the same 'I've got mine, to hell with you' thought process than defines the average neocon.
What is so very insulting about Ryan's remarks is that those who are currently on both programs are in truth participating in welfare. Most of us have paid into both those programs our entire working lives. Entitlement? Yes, we are entitled to that which we've paid into. That's why the I in FICA is for Insurance. It's an insurance program, plain and simple.
Ryan doesn't bother to tell anyone that the main reason for privatizing (personalizing?) SS is that administrative costs will go from approximately 1% to 6%. Of course Wall Street wants to manage the program for us! Six percent of the current trust fund alone is a heck of a lot of money. And when you consider there's no risk to Wall Street (the government will simply bail them out should they lose it all in a gamble), it becomes even more egregious.
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/52xx/doc5277/report.pdf
There's table in this pdf that breaks down the administrative costs for the current system and the proposed private accounts system.
Social security is one of the most successful entities run by the government. In fact the government borrowed a couple trillion from social securities fund. But when you privatize it or let any private entity in the mix, then and only then it won't be there for the next generation. "Privatization" is another way of say "theft" And I have owned several successful businesses but I didn't take the money off the backs of my employees-I don't need to make billions or millions to be happy. In 30 years, I've found about 3 other businesses like mine.
Looking at the SSA chief actuary's evaluation of the Ryan plan to privatize Social Security (in the "benefit cuts" link above), a middle-income earner who retired in 2010 gets $1397 a month. In 2080, a retired middle-income earner will get $759 a month.
Using a conservative estimate, let's say that retiree needs $200 worth of prescription drugs (today's dollars) each month. And conservatively estimating that the cost of those drugs will double every 20 years (many items double in price about every 10 years), we can determine that those same drugs that cost $200 now will cost around $2400 a month in 2080.
Great plan there, Senator Ryan.
Correction - Congressman Ryan.
correction Congressman Paul "I got my entitlements growing up cause my dad died, to hell with you having food to survive on" Ryan
For any pol to still espouse this after the 2008 meltdown is absurd !! How about we get Bernie Madoff out of jail to run the privatization of the whole Federal Government while we are drinking the Cool Aid?
bacon331... I can't believe it, the first thing I thought of was Bernie Madoff!
And, Wall Street foaming at the mouth with young Ryan's ideas.
Bernie who? He must've been a government worker!!!! There's no way that an unregulated private sector would have ever allowed other people's hard earned wealth be gambled away!!!! And if it WAS gambled away well that's all thanks to Obama's America!!!! See what you libtards get? You just can't stand that other people have saved their entire WORKING lives so you take all their money away!!! And you spent it all on food stamps!!! It's not the private sector's fault that the financial industry collapsed; that's all the fault of the government!!!!!!!!!
And the amnesia continues....
PS- the first paragraph is meant to be snark
glad you put that PS at the bottom, I was going to blast you lol. the thing that gets me is ryan was whining in 2005. that was during george doubleyas administration. he is a pervert he doesn't care who he has to bend over the chair and nail to get into a seat of power. No wonder Twit Robme chose him as a running partner, they have so much in common.
*robbing partner
The Bernie Madoff clones are there....its called the Republican party. If you all want to see what Ryan will do for the United States, just check and see what he has done for his district in Wisconsin. God help the country if Romney and Ryan are elected.
Look you guys don't seem to know we have no deficit. The GOP manufactures that with subsidies and loopholes-that allow them to pay 11% in income tax. If you want the math, in 2010, the total earned income in the US was 12.3 trillion dollars and 17% was earned by the wealthy. I averaged hundreds of returns to get the effectual tax rate and most who study the effectual rate will agree. That leaves then 24% short on 2.009 trillion dollars THAT THEY DARED TO DECLARE (who knows how much is hidden away). But just with these conservative numbers, it amounts to 482 billion a year that the rich are cheating us.-not the government-the rich. I'm not for a progressive tax system, but come on guys, 11%?
And the Jesuits just gave him another drubbing. http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=5368
Social Security is not an entitlement, nor is it any different then other retirement savings plan which people play into, except it is run more effectively without profit for the managers, last I heard at a rate of 2 percent, no private retirement plan comes close. The opportunists what to get their hands all over the money in Socal Security and I oppose it.
Remember that Social Security goes well beyond the retirement aspect. Survivor's benefits to children of deceased parents and disability are also included in that part of SS known as OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance).
Most people forget (or never knew) that there were two other parts of the original Social Security Act of 1935: unemployment insurance and welfare.
The federal government encouraged the states to take over the unemployment benefits part by allowing them to set up state bureaucracies without levying additional state/local taxes. (Employers pay to the state, but it is, with minor exceptions, credited against their federal unemployment assessment.)
Welfare, now known as TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families), was also created to help the many people who needed more immediate help in the wake of the Depression.
Thanks for the history lesson, mpguy. Much appreciated.
BTW, I just received my "Notice of Award" letter from the Social Security Administration (I just turned 66). The title at the top of the page reads
"Retirement, Survivors and Disability Insurance"
Voter fraud does not exist, but the Republicans are fixing it, just like Social Security needs fixing, they need to leave my Social Security alone, I paid into it, so I am entitled to it, not entitled in the same way Romney pays his taxes.
And if you wish to be a capitalist, as Ryan puts it, there's always IRA's and 401k's. And they're voluntary!
I traded on the Nasdaq for 3 years-don't put your money into anything "privatized"-their goal is not your life-it's their pockets.
Rayn at AARP is laughable, his Mom, a wealthy transplant, and if she's collecting SS, or is on Medicare, then perhaps means testing begins at home?
I'm sure she's been means tested into the bottom 10 percent of beneficiaries with what she's got. Of course, if she never worked or worked only for awhile, and all that she has is what her husband left her, that could be different.
You all know how much the elderly like Monty Hall. Too bad all that is behind Ryan's door for them is a mirror showing the sucker in the GOP bait and switch.
How can some Americans vote for such monsters to become the president and VP of America?
Where is the love for your fellow Americans?
Romney and his VP are America's worst nightmare!
You don't need any love for your fellow man. With Mitt and Co. you just need a sense of self preservation and/or common sense to know you are going to need the Kentucky lube.
I was reading FactCheck.org, and why am I not surprised that in an article about Twit they say ..... "Romney and running mate Paul Ryan exaggerate when they say “five different studies” prove that all of the stated goals of Romney’s revenue-neutral tax plan could be accomplished without raising taxes on middle-income taxpayers."
Read the rest yourself:
www.factcheck.org/2012/09/romneys-economic-exaggerations-2/
One hopes the little twit will be booed off the stage.
If he does take questions they will be "planted" questionaireors.. yumpn yimeny
Strange how somebody that never sweat blood to make a dollar can talk about SSI as if it is unearned.Stranger still is that posh puppets of wealthy aristocrats can get blue collar stiffs to support them even at great cost to their own well being.
I have an older buddy who probably lost somewhere in the neaghborhood of $200,000 when his steel mill pension got ripped off (probably by someone who shared "notes" with twitt),, he maybe, and his daughter absolutely will vote for rummy...
I have another friend, a social worker, living in a union town, Hispanic, smart, and looking forward to his PERA and,,, he's a rabid republican. I think it has to do with the democrats mentioning gun control 15 years ago...
I totally understand the puzzlement, luz. I did run across a study done by the University of Arkansas, however, which ties conservative thinking to low thought and lazy thinking. This led me to quite a few other things relating to it, and it makes sense to me (or as much sense as can be made out of this phenomena of voting against one's own best interests).
The below link is from the Huffington Post, but there are many others out there:
http://tinyurl.com/d4c3pje
Wonderful article, especially the drunk bar patron aspect which proves in a back-door kinda way that since I, 3 times a week, have to take on a 6 beer handicap to play in my billiard league and my being as lefty luzy as anyone on the planet,, I must therefor be one smart SOB...
I sure would like to see the questions asked in the poll to get a sense of what is a conservative viewpoint. I will also bet that if you ask a bunch of self described conservatives "what was the last book you read" 30% will say the bibble (and only the bibble) and at that only 20 or so pages from the new testyment.
And along those lines I would also bet that if you polled people who converted to judiasm,, close to 100% will have not read the old testyment. I'm talking to you, Madonna...
Conservatives do have different brains. You can read it hear. It's been known for about 5 years-no empathy, self centered, no cerebral, more aggressive, etc. They have a less evolved brain-one suited more for the days of the cave man-too bad they don't believe in their own creation.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/are-liberals-and-conservatives-hard-wired-to-disagree/237075/
Ryan and Romney and the whole lot of Randian ninnies are dimwits.
Even in her drug addled mind Ayn believed in the creation of wealth, through innovators, not the accumulation of wealth by fiat. Mitt isn't a follower of John Galt, he's Wesley Mouch incarnate.
Don't forget Ayn Rand also collected Social Security and Medicare. Did that make her irresponsible and not willing to take charge of her own life? :}
http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/27/tea-party-patron-saint-ayn-rand-applied-for-social-security-medicare-benefits/
You guys are great. I feel much better. I am collecting social security after working my whole life and the thought of handing it to Wall Street is just nauseating especially after what happened to my 401K and everybody else's. Bernie Madof is the poster child (and always will be) for the need for enforced regulations of the private sector ( which always sees itself as superior.)
I just want to give a quick shout out to the Rachel Maddow Blog commenters. From what I've seen, the most well informed, articulate family of contributors out there.
Rachel really does her homework. I never miss a show.
I just heard that Ryan was booed several times at the AARP gathering. He tried to sell his voucher system and it did not go well.
How did Ryan pay for part of his schooling...from his dad's social security? Just sayin'
now that is what I'm talking about, not to mention Twitt's father was on welfare at a point in his life. all republicans are losers, if they continue to swallow the sunshine and lollipops that these mothers keep spoonfeeding them.
"No, he borrowed the money from his dad"-per Romney
The republicans want to REDISTRIBUTE the wealth of the middle class and poor, to the rich.
the repuglicans want to privatize everything so that so called "free markets" can run it all
for profit. the free market is a myth, there is nothing free about it. it is a myth like trickle down economics. just look to charter schools, most of which are failing miserably.
Pirateize the energy grid = Enron
They won't because they only do things for money and not for any other reason-like helping the planet-just pure money and the more the happier they are.
Wait a minute. Wouldn't buying government bonds with Social Security funds increase the national debt? Is that what Paul Ryan is advocating?
He only advocated bonds for those near retirement. Until then we'd have all those wonderful stocks, like Enron or GM, and all those wonderful derivatives for Wall Street to churn your Social Security taxes through ! (FYI our Social Security taxes are already invested in special Treasury Bonds. Even if we had a budget surplus SS isn't holding most of the total debt)
Based on Ryan's Budget and his comments over the years, someone should remind the Catholic Paul Ryan that his worship of Ayn Rand is against the 1st Commandment.
1, "I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me."