Paul Ryan

I should have posted this a few weeks ago. It is still great information. Written by one of my favorite writers.

Vice Presedential candidate Paul Ryan recently gave a hard hitting speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa which put the blame for today's stalled economy squarely on the shoulder's of President Obama. FactCheck.org's reviewed Ryan's speech and and determined it contained several false claims. Ryan's false claims are detailed below.

FactCheck.org Claim: Ryan lied about Obamacare taking funds from Medicare

Obamacare takes $716B from Medicare as one of its sources of funding and that’s a fact. The savings will come from lower reimbursements to care providers. Which will cause fewer doctors and hospitals to see Medicare patients. The result will be decreased medical access for Medicare patients. This plan isn't workable, but the CBO has to take legislation at face value, so it gives Obamacare credit for this $716B even though the payments to doctors will probably have to go back up when doctors start bailing from the Medicare program.

The problem is that the CBO gives dubious legislation the same weight as reasonable legislation. When Ryan came up with his own budget plan he included this same dubious proposal to get $716B from Medicare or else his plan would have started out $716B in the hole compared to the plan offered by Democrats. Because Democrats gamed the system to get Obamacare a better CBO scoring than it deserved, Ryan did the same thing with his budget rather than have his plan start in a $716 B hole compared to Obamacare.

But Ryan's budget plan has nothing to do with his factual statement that Obamacare pulls $716B from medicare. The relevance of the Ryan budget is questionable since the Romney campaign isn't running on the Ryan budget. Why does FactCheck.org bring up a budget that was never passed to prove Ryan misrepresented Obamacare? If Ryan had something untrue about Obamacare perhaps FactCheck.org wouldn't need to use a smoke screen to make their point.

FactCheck.org Claim: Ryan lied about Obama's efforts to implement deficit reduction proposals from his own Simpson-Bowles Commission on debt reduction.

In his speech Ryan failed to mention he was on the Simpson-Bowles Commission and voted against their completed proposal. The Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended a balanced plan for deficit reduction that included both spending cuts and tax increases. Ryan wasn't willing to support the tax increases. Ryan developed his own alternative budget plan without tax increases.

But how does Ryan's decision to develop an alternate budget have anything to do with Obama’s failure to support the recommendations of his own debt commission? If the Simpson-Bowles budget was the best plan available why didn't Obama work with Harry Reid to get it passed as a bill in the Senate? Is the President off the hook because a member of Congress didn't support the recommendations of his commission?

In his speech at the RNC Ryan said, “He (Obama) created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.” Obama has added $5 trillion in new debt, more than all other presidents combined. Obama's last budget was so unserious that it didn't get a single vote in s Senate controlled by his own party. Harry Reid didn't even vote for Obama's budget! In fact, Harry Reid and the rest of the Senate hasn't passed any budget since Obama moved into the White House. The only deficit reduction proposal Obama has been pushing recently is to increase taxes on the rich, which would fund the government for approximately 8.5 days. Railing against the rich may poll well with voters, but its not exactly the kind of leadership will help America with our mounting debt crisis. Ryan wasn't lying when said Obama has done nothing to reduce the deficit. He was being generous.

FactCheck.org Claim: Ryan lied when he claimed average American were “cut out” of stimulus spending since more than a quarter of Obama's stimulus when toward tax relief.

Ryan should issue a statement stating that the American public was only cut out of three-quarters of Obama's stimulus. Unfortunately, the American public is stuck with the the bill for the whole thing, not just the one quarter in tax benefits that actually may have benefited them.

The biggest Keynesian experiment in our history has been a stunning failure. The big lie about the stimulus was that it would keep unemployment below 8% by financing shovel ready projects. Later the President admitted there weren't as many shovel ready jobs as he thought. Unemployment remains above (not below) 8% with 23 million Americans unemployed or underemployed.

Instead of creating additional plans to grow the economy and create jobs the Obama administration has focused on campaigning, fund raising, blaming Republicans, bashing the rich, and floating nonsense ideas such as the jobless recovery and 8% unemployment being the new normal. Its interesting liberals were making similar excuses near the end of the Carter Administration.

FactCheck.org Claim: Ryan lied when he blamed President Obama for the closing of the GM production plant in Janesville WI because it closed the month before Obama took office.

On February 13, 2008 at a speech in Janesville WI candidate Obama said,“I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years.” Again in October of 2008 candidate Obama promised, “As president, I will lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility in Janesville so we can build the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow and create good-paying jobs in Wisconsin and all across America.” I'm sure the people of Janesville WI got the impression that if we implemented the President's stimulus and GM bailout that their local GM plant would continue to provide jobs.

In Ryan's RNC speech he said, “Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.” Ryan's statement is completely factual. While running for President Obama indicated that if they people supported his plan for the auto industry then the Janesville plant would retool and continue to employ people. This was President Obama's promise and it is completely reasonable for Ryan to compare the President's promises with what actually happened.

Ryan's point was that Obama's economic policies have left our economy week and stagnant. Comparing a closed auto plant to Obama's promise of being “here for a hundred years” is a fairly effective way to demonstrate the weakness of Obama's recovery.

Dishonesty regarding the closing of the Janesville plant resides with the MSM including FactCheck.org for claiming the Janesville plant closed in December of 2008 when in fact it continued to produce trucks for Isuzu until April of 2009. Most of the plant closed down in December 2008, but it continued to employ about 1200 workers until about four months into Obama's presidency. Any news organization claiming the Janesvilled GM plant closed in December 2008 is suffering from bias, incompetence, or both.

FactCheck.org Claim: Ryan lied when he blamed the historical downgrading of the US credit rating on Obama.

In his speech to the RNC Ryan said, “It (Obama's presidency) began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.” Again, Ryan's statement is completely factual. Republicans were unwilling to raise taxes and Democrats were unwilling to cut entitlements. Whether Obama deserves the blame or not depends on who's position you find more reasonable. If you feel the federal government should increase taxes to provide more benefits and entitlements to create demand and spur economic growth then you should probably blame Ryan and the Republicans for not compromising. If you believe federal spending is out of control one of the causes of our current economic problems then you should probably blame Obama and the Democrats for being unwilling to compromise on spending.

Its interesting that FactCheck.org and the rest of the MSM were so quick to pile on Paul Ryan for telling lies when in fact Ryan's speech simply contains the bias one expects to find in campaign speeches. Do they really expect Ryan to be objective? Clearly Ryan is biased against bigger government and more federal spending. What's troubling is that the bias of FactCheck.org and most of the MSM is nearly as apparent as Ryan's.

What is FactCheck.org's judgment on the Obama Administration's claim that their stimulus was necessary to keep unemployement under 8%? Or how has FactCheck.org rated Present Obama's promises regarding the GM Janesville plant being around for the next 100 years? The Obama Administration frequently takes credit for all for all of the GM jobs that still exist. However, when Paul Ryan dares to point out GM and other jobs that no longer exist in the Obama recovery the MSM piles on fast. This says a lot more about the MSM than it does about Paul Ryan.  

September 3, 2012

Tom Martin