True Colors ... Shining Through

It is hard to pigeonholing what Mitt Romney actually stands for, as he has far surpassed any "flip-flopping" presidential candidate in recent memory, making Kerry seem like a "decider" in the mold of George Bush (cough, cough). But with the selection of Tea Party darling Paul Ryan (Rep-R), any suppositions that he would move toward the center after winning the GOP nomination has disappeared. Instead it appears the ticket will try to win on charisma (which Romney has little of), good looks (one could say Romney and Ryan certainly have the advantage here) and attacks and lies (which Romney is quite good at). Ryan sells himself as a rebel that is looking to sensibly deal with the debt. But as The New Republic highlighted in an article yesterday, he is a truly radical figure who seeks to rewrite the social contract in ways that benefit the wealthy and hurt everyone else (Six Things to Know About Ryan).

As the article points out, the Ryan plan last year proposed a radical rearticulation of the government that would essentially lead to the biggest redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich in history. Ryan's plan would leave the elderly again making decisions between healthcare and luxuries like rent and food, eliminate health insurance for millions of working Americans, cut government services so radically that the CBO estimates say they would be unable to perform basic services like food inspection, education support or road repair and seek to destroy the entitlements that seem more necessary today and in the future than ever (given increased poverty and an aging population of baby boomers). I think all six points made by the article are worth repeating:

1. Ryan believes in cutting Medicare substantially, with a New York Review of Books mentioning that compensation would fall from 68 to 25 percent over time. He wants to change the current program to one with vouchers, with few safeguards to ensure that they keep up with rising prices. 
2. Ryan wants to end Medicaid as we know it. Following the script that has seen the GOP try to gut other successful programs for poverty abatement like Head Start, Ryan would call for block grants for Medicaid rather than the current federal to state compensation scheme. This would mean more poor, disabled and elderly without access to healthcare (from 14 to 27 million according the Kaiser Foundation and Urban Institute). To put it bluntly, it really means lowering the life expectancy of the poor.
3.  Ryan has brought up the idea of privatizing Social Security yet again. As I have outlined in the past (a few years ago), this is simply a plan to line the pockets of investment banks, Wall Street and investors, as stock prices become unnaturally inflated in the short run. If we want to make SS more solvent, a more pragmatic method would simply be to invest the money collectively in more high yield options. Giving people "control of their own money" simply means many will lose it, and thus have nothing to retire on.
4. Ryan wants to bleed the government of resources to the point they can't carry out routine services. Ryan proposed cutting the interest on the debt to GDP ration down to 4%, whereas it has not been below 8% since WWII (the current figure is 12%). To accomplish this, discretionary spending would be cut in every area and this would mean less oversight, less protection for workers and the poor, less social services and essentially ending the role of government in regulating the market and helping those in need (a sort of the "Awful Society"). One good piece of news is he doesn't want to cut, but actually increase, defense spending (the next cold war is clearly just around the corner).
5. Ryan wants to lead the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to rich in history. Paul Krugman wrote an interesting article for The New York Review of Books recently, arguing that we could get out of this "depression" now by simply spending government money to create new jobs. Ryan instead wants to keep the Bush tax cuts and expand them. To put this in context, the CBO estimates that the Bush tax cuts will cost $4.2 trillion by 2018, while the Ryan proposal asks for cuts during the same time of about, you guessed it, $4 trillion. Thus we could save ourselves from these draconian measures by simply reinstating the dreaded "death tax" (which, by the way, makes sense in a meritocracy) and upping the top tax rate from 35 percent to, gasp, 39.5 percent --- which is where it was until Clinton. Ryan truly is Robin Hood in reverse!
6. Ryan is truly radical when it comes to abortion rights. He has even argued for prosecuting women who have abortions. It's good that we have male candidates in 2012 who are still stuck in the 1950s. 

Ryan is a radical right wing lunatic who cloaks these behind bonhomie and a wonkishness that many find appealing. He talks in common sense language about the need to cut the deficit and long term debt, without showing his real hand -- which is further solidifying corporate and elite power while further undermining the power of government to do anything to stop them. With this pick, we now know what this election is about -- with a man worth at least $190 million running for president to serve his rich brethren in continuing to screw the poor and middle-class for their own greed. Can this reality really fail to escape the public for long?