Just a few months after becoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) hosted a town-hall meeting in his district, and fielded a question about taxes. When the far-right lawmaker argued the wealthy are already taxed enough, his own constituents booed him.
Now his party's vice presidential nominee, Paul today traveled to New Orleans to address a national AARP event, where the boos were much louder and more sustained. Barbara Morrill posted this clip.
Before we get to the booing, let's not brush past the substance. Ryan said repealing the Affordable Care Act would lead to "a stronger Medicare," but that's both wrong and nonsensical. For one thing, "Obamacare" expands health care benefits for seniors, closing the Medicare prescription drug donut hole and making routine preventive care available without copays. If Ryan successfully kills the law, that means immediately taking away benefits current and future retirees now enjoy.
For another, by finding significant cost savings in the Medicare system, Obama's health care law strengthened Medicare's finances and prolonged its financial health. Every independent analysis has found the Romney/Ryan plan does the exact opposite, pushing Medicare closer to insolvency. That's not opinion; it's arithmetic.
And while we're at it, Ryan attacked Democrats' Medicare savings in his speech, assuming his audience isn't smart enough to know his own budget plan adopted the identical savings. Ryan also buried the needle on the Irony-O-Meter by complaining that President Obama hasn't "moved an inch" to compromise with Republicans, when it's Ryan and the GOP who've refused to budge.
That's the bad news. The worse news, at least for Ryan, is that much of today's AARP audience was wholly unimpressed with his deceptive rhetoric, his intention to cut their health care benefits, and his plan to eliminate Medicare altogether and replace it with a private voucher scheme.
Whereas the far-right congressman is accustomed to warm greetings from adoring fans, Ryan was booed, several times, during his remarks this morning.
If the point of today's appearance was to help win over elderly voters to the Romney-Ryan ticket, it didn't seem to go well.
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if they fall behind old white men...what then?
Gosh ain't that the truth according to the media. I mean everyone keeps saying how people like me are such fervent believers in the GOP fantasy. If they keep reminding us fat old men that the "bums" "R" us we just might get the message.
Ryan looks like the smart-aleck kid in science that doesn't know what he's talking about, yet he does so with such conviction. If he wasn't in Congress being an obstructionist liar I might almost feel sorry for him, the seniors gave'em hell!
Go Seniors, it's your birthday!!
Don't you think it's more like the stunned look of a Boy Scout whose aid was refused?. He doesn't understand why he is getting brow-beaten. All he wants to do is to selflessly escort little old ladies across the street to a world free from medicare socialism.
Couldn't they predict the visuals? Having the #2 GOP proxy booed gives everyone else social cues to do the same, setting up an ugly media narrative. And what are the Romney defenders going to do- chide the old folks'? So you send your #2 into a situation with zero defensive positions, where you will potentially have lots of downside, with very little upside. Wtf? So what is this, a schoolyard pocketknife game of nerve or mumbley peg?
Umm. No thanks Ann.
Hurry Republicans, just 43 more days left to alienate key demographic groups...
John
Being booed by old people is never a good thing.
He is lucky the little ole ladies didn't have umbrellas!
I was thinking more along the lines of knitting needles.
Oh, I just thought of something better!
Ryan (backstage, after speech): "That wasn't so bad. Some of the old girls threw their underwear at me!"
Campaign staffer: "Um, those are adult diapers, Congressman. I think that changes the symbolism somewhat."
Not only was Ryan booed but seniors walked out in protest when he took the stage. This was announced on the evening news and can be verified by internet search.
Mainstream Republicans should not be surprised. Romney was a dumbass from day one, since he lost like a fool to McCain in 2008. Ryan is no better. We hear report after report in the national media at how appalled top Republicans (Noonan, Castellanos, Brooks...) are at this nightmare campaign. Who could NOT have predicted this?
MM- That was hilarious.
I think we have much better material for Weekend update- Thursday edition. Throw out the Drunk uncle crap and put in the Boy Scout Ryan - depends(tm) / dependency sketch crossing the electoral road.
Do a search for walker brigade snl
Thank God for AARP members !!!!! Lying GOP quacks selling snake oil are deserving of booing, where were the tomatoes and shoes, let see if he has good reflexes like GWB.
The Aryan Brotherhood, the NRA, and Herman Cain...oh, wait.....
We may be geezers (I'm 71) but we ain't stupid. And- curiously enough- Social Security and Medicare are rather important to us, so we pay attention!
-Take THAT, you whippersnapper!
Yep, we Boomers are loud and proud, and there's a lot of us! That draft dodger and his cohort have a few things to learn.
Yeah, but don't you buy the line "this won't effect you, just those 55 and younger?" ;-)
They're trying to buy off the votes of current retirees, thinking that everyone is as selfish as they are... that the response will be "as long as I get mine, who cares about my younger brother or my kids." They forget a key thing: AARP includes 55 year olds, who feel far closer to that swinging ax than older retirees do. Hopefully they won't buy the snake oil that they'll be safe. The Ryans of the world are coming HARD after the benefits that we all have paid into.
54 year-olds for Romney/Ryan... no, wait.
Anyone who thinks that Medicare will be safe and secure for those over 55, or even those currently receiving it, is sadly mistaken.
Once one group is getting traditional Medicare and the other isn't, there will be strong political pressure to eliminate benefits for older people.
How happy do you think those under 55 will be to pay for a program whose benefits they largely won't see? A program that will offer them less at greater cost. Ask anyone currently receiving a public employee pension about what happens when certain people get something that many others don't.
Agreed. I pause at using this phrase, because NOTHING political is in a locked box.
I was tempted to give Ryan props for being willing to state his case to an unsympathetic audience, but then I saw that smirk on his face. He seemed to get a real kick out of being booed by that pack of moochers.
What a jerkoff.
Like Romney "telling off" the NAACP, little Eddie Munster thinks this will play well with the droolers he's depending on.
I saw that smirk on his face. He seemed to get a real kick out of being booed by that pack of moochers.
And:
Romney "telling off" the NAACP
THe smirk means Ryan got what he wanted.
Mayhaps they're planning to use the clip of the AARP the same way they used the clip from the NAACP (and as a white guy it embarrases me).? ??
Good luck with that.
.
I noticed he was back in black again.
Ryan should have used some variation of Mittens comment to the NAACP. The one akin to "if you n!ggers want something for free, vote for the other guy".
Coming after the fact. Just like Mitt did it.
I just joined up with AARP! Any organization that is smart enough to boo Ryan is the kind of organization I want to belong to!!!
And I quit them because I got sick of all the dang insurance crap they kept sending me. They are pushing the same corporate greed that got us in this mess.
Like many "affinity" groups, AARP started as a lobbying organization that morphed into mainly a marketing organization
Yes, I agree for the most part, BUT you have to watch the AARP corp ofc every min. Wasn't too long ago, they were very much in favor of cutting medicare. Thank those great seniors for putting them straight..
Being on medicare myself, believe me when you take expensive diabetes drug's that doughnut hole come's up pretty fast.Obamacare(s) save's me $300 per month.This is quite a saving's when you are drawing S.S.I am not alone,there are million's more like me that save money under Obamacare.From what I've heard,over 4.billion dollar's has been saved by medicare recipient's while in the doughnut hole so far.If Romney/Ryan succeed in repealing the AHCA it will cost many on medicare hundred's if not thousand's more per year for prescription drug's.And Romney/Ryan would give trillion's in tax break's to the wealthy, while making the elderly pay for it.
Diabetes?
That's easy, you only need the meds if you eat, and if you buy the meds you can't afford to eat (or at least not as much) so you need fewer meds, and if you starve you don't need meds at all!!
It's an all around Win Win!!
.
Exactly! You nailed it. How did Scrooge put it? "They'd rather die than go to the workhouses? Then let them die and decrease the surplus population!" I've had cancer 7 times. My insurance company from my employment dropped me after 2 years, right before my bone marrow transplant. Fortunately, I was covered under my husband's insurance. Now we are both on SS Disability and without Obamacare, we were in danger of being dropped from HIS insurance FOR PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, and if they take away Medicare (which is part of MY insurance and which WE HAVE ALL BEEN PAYING INTO SINCE WE STARTED GETTING PAYCHECKS!!! ARG!), then I will basically just have to roll over and die. I don't think my Republican neighbors in Utah (yes, I need sympathy) have a clue about how this would affect people personally. People they KNOW. THEMSELVES one day when they get sick. The biggest complainers seem to be the ones who haven't gotten seriously ill yet. Their day will come.....
Dayum, did those seniors give 'Lyin' Ryan' an earful of "we don't play that sh*t" or what!
This is just a continuation of AARP's fight with Ryan. It started after he proposed the budget with CouponCare and privatizing SS. The AARP has been running ads directed at seniors to get to know what is being proposed. This is going to continue until the elections. Ryan knew he was going in a lions den so that raises the question "Why did he go there?"
"Why did he go there?"
Out-of control arrogance.
Mike- it's a continuation of the effort to make Romney and Ryan look tough, like having Myth go to the NAACP to get booed and then bragging about it later. Mark my words: they'll be bragging about the courage that it took to go and tell the AARP the "hard truth" about the "state" of Medicare. (It takes an awful lot of quotes when you are trying to portray just how cute they are being with their arguments!)
Look tough? Trying to emulate the Clinton Sista Souljah moment? I guess she's a grandma by now
Romney is NO Bill Clinton or Barack Obama! It was bound to happen after all others were beaten into submission by Romney's BIG SPENDING!
The will have to screen their audiences again or grow thicker skins (Ann) because this is becoming real now. Imagine having to haul some 80 somethings from the room.. Did anyone notice if Ryan's mother was booing as well?
Too bad little Eddie Munster wasn't chased from the building and then tarred and feathered.
I'd have paid double the dues to see that!!!
or a stake in the heart, or a silver bullet, no, thats for werewolves isnt it.
Well, blue eyes, we don't have to. It seems they already have addressed this, and you're lying. That, or you're ignorant.
Stupid or evil. The eternal debate continues.
I think they are evil and that they think we (the voters) are stupid.
There can be no legitimate doubt that they are evil.
Both. Absolutely.
Where I live in a Senior Community, there is a "chat line" to communicate with other residents. Someone posted a "video" at "mybrainshark.com" regarding "changes" to Medicare Advantage plans starting Oct. 2012 and taking effect after the November election. However, according to MY medicare advantage plan, NO CHANGES! Starting in 2013 there will be a reduction of copayments that had been paid to specialists, hospitals and other coverage. What was posted on my chatline was political in nature and untrue.
You should post your findings on that chat line. The truth must get out!!
Actually, I did post my remarks. Surely, I thought there would be some comments. Some thanked me, others not so much. One said that she thought that "Medicare advantage plans" are being "phased out" If stupidity would be electricity, they would be a powerhouse!
Mitt the Twit and the Republican party of twitheads - what else is there to say!
Open arriving backstage when the speech concluded, Ryan was overheard saying, "Where did all these SMART senior citizens come from?"
Dang. I may have to join AARP after all.
I saw on NBC Nightly News that not only did Ryan get booed, many people in the audience walked out.
When it comes to Paul Ryan, AARP stands for Another Arrogant Republican Politician!
Vincent Thomas
Do you know there is a bridge in Southern California named Vincent Thomas?
http://www.laalmanac.com/structure/st04.htm
Tax breaks for the wealthy is the biggest government welfare entitlement in the country.
Bravo!!
It was like hearing a perfectly tuned symphony to hear those old people
booing Paul Ryan while intermittently wheezing and coughing.... Repealing
ObamaCare? What kind of idiot speaks before a group of old people promising
to do that? Romney/Ryan I hear there's an opening for dog catcher somewhere
in Omaha... This race is a wash!
What amazes me is how the older crowd (my generation) can staunchly defend Romney/Ryan and vote against their own best interests. And even though Ryan says oh if you are a certain age it won't affect you, may be true but it does affect my kids/grandkids.....do most of my generation of geezers have less brains now?
PS Rachel,
my new mantra is IAM A VOTER NOT A VICTIM pass this along to everyone.
Lol. I didn't expect that and I bet neither did Paulocchio, despite of what he said. I may join. GO AARP!