As news broke over the weekend that Mitt Romney had selected Paul Ryan as his running mate, the Republican spin machine was already working in full force. They were calling the pick “bold” and that it would allow Romney to solidify the Republican base behind him, but as the rhetoric died down and the facts began to speak for themselves, it became clear that there is nothing bold at all about Paul Ryan’s selection as Romney’s running mate.
Is it bold, for example, for Paul Ryan to propose a plan that would slash taxes for those at the top while raising taxes on those who can least afford it? Is it bold of him to propose legislation that would outlaw forms of contraception for women or take college pell grants away from more than 1 million low-income students? Is it bold of him to vote against marriage equality or ending “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”? Or is it bold of him to offer a so-called "balanced budget" roadmap that would actually add $6 trillion to the national debt in the next decade alone?
Mitt Romney desperately wants you to believe Paul Ryan is a results focused leader, but the reality is, he’s isn’t. Instead, he’s just another partisan ideologue whose agenda is fueled by the same special interests and political gamesmanship that we’ve seen right here in Michigan over the past 18 months.
As Michigan Republicans were passing new taxes on our senior citizens, Paul Ryan was calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and advocating for their retirement funds to be subject to the whim of Wall Street insiders. As Michigan Republicans politicized and delayed the creation of a state healthcare exchange, Paul Ryan was calling for the end of Medicare as we know it. And as Michigan Republicans gave billions of dollars away to corporate CEOs without the guarantee of a single job being created, Paul Ryan voted to provide $40 billion in federal tax subsidies to big oil companies.
The agenda being pushed by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan is the same agenda that attacked Michigan’s seniors, our middle class families and our students over the past 18 months. It’s an agenda that has failed the people of Michigan and one that would clearly fail in the White House. It’s an agenda that we have the power to reject, but only if we speak out together in November.
The Republicans may have wanted the selection of Paul Ryan to be bold, but it’s instead just business as usual for them.