This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Romney Selects Paul Ryan to Join the GOP Ticket

Ryan's selection ensures that a great debate will take place in America as to who has the best vision for our country.

Last Saturday, Mitt Romney picked Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be his running mate on the Republican ticket. As soon as I heard the news, I was elated.

I had been worried that this campaign was going to get mired in the weeds, lost in campaign soundbites, gaffes, political rhetoric, and hyperbole. We no longer have that worry. With Paul Ryan's entry into the campaign, we now have the ideological leader of the national Republican Party on the ticket. This will be a debate about two totally different visions for our country. The contrast is stark, and the distinctions are clear. This is like choosing between the Red Sox and the Yankees. There is no middle ground, there is no gray area.

Paul Ryan is a 42 year old career politician. He's been in Washington as a Congressional aide, staffer, speech writer or as a Congressman for his entire professional career. He was elected to Congress in 1998, and he's now in his seventh term. He is the quintessential career politician.

Find out what's happening in Trumbullwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ryan has stated publicly that the reason he became involved in public service was the writings of Ayn Rand. Rand was a Russian-born, pro-Choice, atheist, who was a writer/philosopher and penned books such as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Her writings and philosophy completely reject any kind of Christian thinking when it comes to altruism or charity, in fact, she views those things as a sign of weakness. She talks about individualism, the value of selfishness, and she makes no apologies by embracing strict capitalistic, free market thinking and she states plainly that many will be left behind. Paul Ryan has said that her writings were required reading for all of the staff and interns in his office. He has said he grew up reading Ayn Rand, and she taught him a great deal about who he is as a person, and the values he has.

Paul Ryan is the creator of "The Pathway to Prosperity," otherwise known as the Ryan Budget. Ryan's vision for the future of America is vastly different from what most politicians on both sides of the aisle have ever articulated. Most people would describe the sum of his ideas as being out of the mainstream in America. His budget cuts $4 trillion in taxes over the next 10 years, and gives most of that money to the richest Americans. In order to pay for his tax breaks for the rich, Ryan takes it away from the most vulnerable Americans in our society--the poor, the unemployed, the sick, and our senior citizens. As in social Darwinism, only the strong prosper under the Ryan budget. His cuts are so draconian that the American Conference of Catholic Bishops have stated that his budget fails to meet the basic moral test. Even conservative politician Newt Gingrich has stated that Ryan's budget is "radical...right-wing social engineering."

Find out what's happening in Trumbullwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Ryan Budget cuts food stamps and housing assistance for the poor. It slashes Medicaid, and would leave between 13 and 27 million people without access to healthcare. Remember, 50% of all Medicaid dollars go to paying for the elderly who are confined to nursing homes. Who will take care of the weakest, sickest, and most fragile senior citizens who need to be in a nursing facility but don't have the funds to pay for the staggering costs of this type of care? Ryan also chops Pell Grants and Stafford Loans significantly, making it much more difficult for parents to send their children to college. It guts funding for transportation, roads, bridges, and infrastructure. It cuts the environment, technology, social services, employment retraining, etc.

Perhaps the most profound cuts come in his plans for Medicare. First, Ryan's plan increases the age for Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67. Next, for those who are currently 55 and under, his plan relies on "premium supports" to replace Medicare as we know it. Under this plan, the government would subsidize the cost of private insurance plans, and the amount of the subsidy would depend on means testing and an assessment of individual medical needs. Non-partisan budget analysts have estimated that the Ryan plan would cost the average senior an additional $6,400 per year in costs.

Ryan's plan changes the way our society has operated for many decades. It fundamentally alters the social contract in which Americans have trust, and it effects savings primarily on the backs of the most vulnerable amongst us. Meanwhile, the least vulnerable, those who don't need it, are the big winners. Ryan's budget cuts the tax rate on all interest, capital gains, and dividends to zero. If this is how you generate your income, you will pay nothing.

And this shows how clear the choice is. Under the Ryan plan, Mitt Romney would pay less than a 1% tax on the $21 million he made in income in 2010. The rest of the poor slobs in America who go out to work everyday would pay a minimum of 10 times that amount as a percentage of our income, but while the vast majority of Americans pay for this plan in some way, some millionaires and billionaires pay nothing.

Nothing for national defense. Nothing for roads. Nothing for public education. Zero. The rich just keep getting richer. The Ryan plan would engineer the greatest shift in wealth to the richest Americans in the history of our country. If you ask Paul Ryan how he justifies such a plan, he has said in the past as recently as 2009 that Ayn Rand provides the moral justification for these kinds of reforms in her writings. Atheist Ayn Rand provides a lesson on morality...wow!

Meanwhile, millions and millions of Americans would lose access to basic medical care, job retraining, education, etc. Recently, Mitt Romney told students who had dreams of going to college to "borrow the money from your parents." It appears that Romney and Ryan, both multi-millionaires, are content with a society where things like education and medical treatment are based on affluence. Too bad for the rest. Ayn Rand's individualism and philosophy of Objectivism don't worry about those who don't get medical treatment because they can't afford it, get sick, or die. It doesn't contemplate what happens in the future when our nation isn't as well educated, and what that means to our ability to compete in a truly global economy. It doesn't worry about crumbling infrastructure or investment in roads and bridges. The rich can afford better means of transportation. The rest? "Let them eat cake."

Lastly, Paul Ryan is a Champion for the Republican War on Women.  He voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He has voted continuously to restrict or end women's reproductive rights, and he wants many forms of birth control which are currently popular to be outlawed. Congressman Ryan would set women's rights back fifty years.

Yes, there is a clear choice this November. And I think that the GOP is going to be surprised when they find out that the majority of Americans are not going to buy into their radical plan to take America backward. I believe that deep within our hearts, the American people are compassionate, and they deeply believe in the values of altruism and charity. We are all in this together. I believe voters will reject the Romney/Ryan vision of individualism and elitism.

We need to solve our problems by working together. Both sides of the aisle must be committed to addressing issues in a serious way. Simpson-Bowles is a great place to start. Radical plans like the one advanced by Ryan should be dismissed. We should start working on a plan which includes everyone, considers spending cuts as well as some increases in revenues, and is fair to all while preserving our commitment to those who need it most.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?