Citizens in Wisconsin are not happy with Paul Ryan's double talk about the economy. People want their congressman to focus on jobs, but all we get is Republican repetition regarding the holy dyad of lowering taxes for the wealthy and "reforming" entitlements. That seems the best they can do these days, and folks are getting impatient.
Ryan is his own bobble head: back and forth, back and forth, lower taxes, reform entitlements, back and forth. However, yesterday, at his $15 a ticket lunch, a number of folks weren't having it any more. Ryan had been dodging them for weeks during his annual staged performance of statewide listening. Protestors showed up at his Rotary pay-per-view in Greenfield. They paid their fifteen dollars, and hoped to be heard.
Paul Ryan with the eyes of a Labrador Retriever looking for a Liv-a Snaps, explains, "Most of our debt, in the Future, comes from our entitlement programs."
From the back of the room comes a loud comment, "Hey! What is this you're trying to pull? [inaudible] I paid into this for fifty years with my unemployment and my social security [as they surround him] … and my medicare, and now you're gonna… [shouting/inaudible] ..I'm on the ground, I'm on the ground…"
Ryan jokes, "I hope he's taking his blood pressure medication!" and gets a good Rotarian laugh from the crowd.
Welcome to the floor, Mr. Seventy One Year Old Citizen! We can all laugh at you now.
This, then, Mr. Ryan, is your "new normal" for Wisconsin: a concerned elderly citizen, frustrated because you won't meet with anyone who doesn't agree with you, gets invited by your minions to forcefully meet the hard hallway, to experience the floor horizontally, while you get off a cute comedy club quip.
Keep it classy, Congressman! I, too, hope he has his meds. I hope we all have our necessary meds. Because we certainly won't be affording them if your reformist wet dreams are realized. And lord knows we need to be taking something to make sense of your intransigent policies!
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UPDATE: A number of kossacks in the comment thread have asked about the gentleman who was arrested. This information is from an article on Huffington Post.
"Three people got me and hauled me backwards out the side door and into a little room. ... They pushed me the floor and twisted my arms back and handcuffed me. They said I was resisting arrest," recounted Nielsen in an interview with The Huffington Post.
The man, a retired plumber who lives in Ryan's district, said:
"I have a broken clavicle from a car accident I had about four weeks ago, and it's in the process of healing, but it's not done yet. So I was protecting that. I said, 'Don't hurt me! I have a broken shoulder here and collarbone.' They didn't pay attention to that. They put the cuffs on really, really tightly."
Nielsen and the two other individuals who were arrested had to sit in a "paddy wagon" for an hour or two before being taken to the police station, he said.
Nielsen said he is still a bit sore from Tuesday's scuffle. He faces fines amounting to approximately $1,000 for trespassing and resisting arrest, which he plans to challenge in court.
I'm trying to find other information about this man's fate, and will let you know if anything new comes in.