News broke early Saturday morning that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney selected Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate, according to a Fox News report.
Ryan, best known for his proposed budget that calls for an overhaul of Medicare, is considered a rising star in the GOP.
Romney made the official announcement at a campaign stop in Norfolk, Va., calling Ryan "an intellectual leader of the Republican Party."
What do you think of Romney's choice of running mate? Take our poll or tell us in the comments below.
Pennsylvania Republican leaders praised Romney's choice of running mate.
"I congratulate Paul Ryan on being selected to join Mitt Romney on the Republican Presidential ticket," said Rob Gleason, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, in a statement released following the announcement. "Pennsylvanians will be well served by a Romney-Ryan team in a White House that can finally shut the door on President Obama’s four years of high unemployment, out-of-control spending, and usher in a new era of American prosperity. Pennsylvania will be first in line to send Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to the White House when we deliver our 20 electoral votes this November."
“Quite simply, President Obama has failed," continued Gleason. "The unemployment rate has now been above 8 percent for 42 straight months. Friday’s jobs report illustrates how Obama has failed to fix the economy and meet his own standards: He promised his massive $831 billion stimulus would create millions of jobs and bring unemployment down to around 5.5 percent by today. Most staggering of all, the real unemployment rate is 15 percent! That means that 15 percent of Americans either can’t find a job, full-time work or have given up even trying to find a job. That is this President’s legacy and the reason Pennsylvanians are going to vote for the Romney-Ryan ticket."
Pennsylvania Democrats also issued a statement on Romney's choice.
"Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan proves once again that he has the wrong agenda for middle class Pennsylvanians," said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burn in the release. "Paul Ryan shares Mitt Romney's commitment to helping the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. Ryan is the author of a budget plan that will increase taxes for the middle class and end Medicare as we know it, all to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The Romney-Ryan agenda will cut investments in education, clean energy, and innovation that will help our economy grow while returning to the same failed trickle down economic policies of the past. The Romney-Ryan budget plan will cost America over 1 million jobs while cutting key investments in middle class programs like Head Start and veterans health care. Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan has made it clear that he will abandon the middle class and seniors and take us back to the same failed policies of the past that hurt middle class Pennsylvanians."
If a guy has the wherewithal to barbeque a dog and subject his own pet to 60 mph winds for 1200 miles how concerned is he going to be about you? Go right ahead and vote for him and watch our country return to the same good old boy bush administration policies which bought our country to it's knees. I believe there really should be a history/voter test before people are eligible to vote. *facepalm*
Mitt is deliberately vague on details. A few buzz words here and there to attract the few who won't be voting for Obama, and hope the ostrich-with-head-in-the-sand stupidity of the average, partisan voter will be enough to garner some votes. No promises made, none to keep. Ryan on the ticket sends one message. A middle finger flashed to the middle class. I can just see all the senior citizens lining up to vote for that ticket....sigh.
We get no respect for being adults who can understand complicated problems and how the candidates would address them. Instead, it's just one guy throwing mud at the other and then the other guy throwing it back. Romney ran the nastiest primary campaign in recent memory. (Don't believe me; go read what his opponents--Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, etc. said about it at the time.) And Obama is going to "fight fire with fire." One thing you know for sure is that it will not be a detail oriented campaign.
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/12898-focus-illinois-anger-at-bain-outsourcing Be sure to read the comments, too.
Our country, the middle class, and our senior citizens will not survive a return to the past practices of the bush administration. Romney says he wants to give Americans more choices. B.S. If they can't afford healthcare now, I guarantee more choices under his "plan" will only drive the costs and make even more money for the 1%. Although we haven't heard it used much recently don't think for one minute that the "new world order" is gone. The USA is evolving into a caste system between the haves and have nots with the middle class dwindling. (Thanks, bush.) Mittens scares me and perhaps we should all mentally prepare for what may be a full reveal of a dystopian future for America on the outside chance he would actually win. Pray.
Reminding you that Mitt barbequed a dog must, well, make you a wee bit unsettled. That fact should scare you. It speaks of character. Questions. Would you barbeque a dog? Was it alive when it was smoking on a....wait. These were rich kids. Was it an electric rotisserie or a stick? Should make you sick to your stomach that an innocent animal died in that way. Don't discount that abuse. We are in the state we are in due to a Republican who should have never run for office. bush is the worst president in the history of the United States and he and his administration policies bought our country to it's knees. Which is where we should all be, on our knees and thanking God that McCain and whatshername didn't get elected and that Obama is....trying to right the wrongs of the past.
Predictable. When all else fails, hurl insults.
You would do better to stick with facts and to avoid ad hominem attacks. Obama does in fact have a record to run on. 4 million private sector jobs have been created since his policies were put in place. (Counting from April 2009) Lilly Ledbetter. Health Care Reform. Ended DADT. Supports civil rights for committed gay couples. Got Osama bin Laden and got us out of Iraq. Helped NATO and the Arab League rid the world of Khaddafi at minimal cost to us with no loss of American life. You make like these things or dislike them. But they form the basis for a record on which Obama will run. But they are certainly not "nothing."
In regards to the "crash and burn" predictions for Medicare, I think that it is interesting to note that the Medicare Advantage Program, designed by like-minded Republicans and their favorite lobbyists, made private insurers and pharmaceutical CEO's richer and cost tax payers $33 billion in overpayments. (Isn't that the opposite of deficit reduction?) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/guess-who-would-benefit-f_b_1568119.html Rigging the government to make money for the privileged and private corporations (yep, those military spending increases!) is the GOP strategy and why do middle class folks support it at their own expense?
When my wife an I lived in Ireland, for a brief while in 2008, the nearest pub had a local Socialist Party meeting in the back room - I'll note that this was in the run up to the election when he was even more Liberal - and one night they had a few speakers come in for an event called "Obama: Hype or Hope?" - well, as Americans, that sounded worth sitting in on. They were a group of smart people, who knew a lot about global politics and political philosophy, and do you know what their consensus was? That he's way too Conservative for them to possibly support. For whatever that's worth, the Socialists of South Dublin didn't think he was remotely Socialist enough for them. And, as far as Muslim goes - what, at all, would indicate that he's shown any sort of legal favoritism towards that particular religion during the last 4 years? He's pretty obviously a Christian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myQx7JKM0ns I'd it prefer he wasn't - maybe we could finally get some peace, understanding, and love for our neighbors if it wasn't already assumed of our leaders, because of a label they wear, but by their actions.
Sorry, this time I'm not buying what the Republicans are selling. The economic mess created on their watch was so massive that no incoming President, no matter what party they ascribed to, could possibly completely clean it up in 31/2 or even 4 years. Our current President has gotten the train back on the rails with very little if any cooperation from the Republicans that put (our number one goal is to destroy the President) before the United States of America and the American peoples condition. All we have heard from the Republicans is the demonization of the President that the American people elected, and the continued advocacy for policy that has failed time and time again.
Bush was not good, but far from the worst. Carter and Obama have that honor by a great distance. You also complain that Romney wants to cut medicare. You avoid that fact that Obama's health tax plan cuts over $700 billion to medicare. If Romney does repeal Obamatax than he also repeals the medicare cuts.
Health care reform - an enormous tax on the middle class and job killer for small business. Against gay marriage until it would benefit him politically. Went to war with Libya on his own authority; never went to Congress. He has no record especially if you actually look at the big picture.
Democrats do not clean up the mess, they spend even more. Taxes and spending without cuts does not do the job. Keynesian economics does not and has never fixed anything. The "mess" left by Bush has been made considerably worse under this administration. I do not know where you see that the "train is back on track". Our deficit is far larger than it has ever been. Spending is out of control. Unemployment is still over 8%. His first 2 years in office he had control of Congress. It was filibuster proof and he complains that Republicans will not let him get done what he wants to get done. Labeled them the party of "No". Again he had all the votes he needed to pass whatever bill he wanted. Still waiting on a budget. I agree with you that Republicans do make an economic mess. I disagree when you say that Democrats need to fix it ... blind leading the blind.
I missed any mention in the article that the state of Illinois is an economic disaster. That could not not possibly have anything to do with a Dutch company moving to China? Really? This is an attempt to prove what?
Remember the SCHIP insurance program that Kennedy and Hatch fought to implement? Republicans excoriated Hatch for asserting that "as a nation, as a society, we have a moral responsibility" to support children who are "being terribly hurt."* President Obama's signing of the CHIP Reauthorization Act in 2009 was crucial in maintaining support for disadvantaged children, especially during the current recession, as many people became unemployed. Kennedy and Hatch's work together is an example of statesmanship and compromise that has fallen by the wayside. Ideology is the name of the Republican game and it will hurt, not only the poor and minorities, but average Americans across the country. *http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/us/hatch-joins-kennedy-to-back-a-health-program.html
Republicans do spend much to much on defense. No argument here. Democrats spend much to much on social programs. While I agree there needs to be a social safety net it should be at a much more local level and not at the federal level. Lyndon Johnson started the War on Poverty and it has done nothing but keep the poor poor. It is a failed policy that creates dependence rather than offers incentive. It does not matter who is in office They will spend. Even if they raise taxes they do not use it to pay off debt. They create more programs on which to spend it. The federal government is a failure at creating and sticking to a budget. They should read Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution and stick to that only.
The budget controls instituted in the 1990s successfully restrained fiscal action by the Congress and the President and together with economic growth contributed to the budget surpluses that materialized by the end of the decade. These surpluses led to a decline in the debt held by the public, and from fiscal years 1998 through 2001, the debt-to-GDP measure declined from about 43 percent to about 33 percent. ^ http://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-budget-and-deficit-under-clinton/ ^ Kessler, Glenn (January 24, 2012). "Fact checking the NBC Florida debate". The Washington Post. ^ Kessler, Glenn (July 1, 2011). "Barbara Boxer's blatant rewriting of history". The Washington Post. ^ Federal Debt: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions: An Upadate - U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Clinton had deficits all 8 years of his presidency. If there ever is a true surplus then the debt would have gone down. In 2000 he claimed to have a $230B surplus but he borrowed money from: $152.3B from Social Security $30.9B from Civil Service Retirement Fund $18.5B from Federal Supplementary Medical insurance Trust Fund $15.0B from Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund $9.0B from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund $8.2B from Military Retirement Fund $3.8B from Transportation Trust Funds $1.8B from Employee Life Insurance & Retirement fund $7.0B from others Total borrowed from off budget funds $246.5B, meaning that his $230B surplus is actually a $16.5B deficit. ($246.5B borrowed - $230B claimed surplus = $16.5B actual deficit). Funny how accounting works especially when you are only given a part of the story.
Thank you for publically posting your comments and I share your views. After the manufacturing of divisiveness of the previous administration, i.e., red states/blue states, rich vs poor, etc., perhaps there will come again a day where we are truly the UNITED States of America....
Malek told the Post he was in no position to stop the crime at the time of the incident.
Please take a look at what you've written tomorrow after a good breakfast and some strong coffee. Until then, I'll have whatever you're having...