Mitt Romney Tsunami on Poor People

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/romn-a31.shtml

Romney outlines right-wing agenda in acceptance speech

Mitt Romney officially accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president on Thursday evening, in a speech before the national convention in Tampa, Florida. The speech concluded a three-day convention during which the Republicans put on display the right-wing program upon which they are campaigning.

The Republican platform is significant not simply for what it says about the party—a deeply reactionary organization—but the entire American political system. Amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the ruling class, represented by both big business parties, is moving to escalate attacks on the working class.

In terms of policy, the main focus of the Republican campaign is the “economy”—i.e., demands for further corporate deregulation, the elimination of all constraints on profit-making, and the dismantling of Medicare and other social programs to further enrich the financial aristocracy. The Obama administration has pursued these policies over the past four years, and the Republicans are working to shift the political debate even further to the right.

Romney, a former CEO of an asset-stripping firm with a personal fortune of some $200 million, cynically expressed his concern for high levels of unemployment, declining wages, and record poverty. This comes from a candidate who personifies Wall Street speculation and is on record declaring that he is “not concerned about poor people.”

To supposedly address the economic crisis, Romney outlined a five-point program that includes: the ending of restrictions on energy corporations; “school choice,” i.e., the further dismantling and privatization of public education; a harder line on China and other competitors of US capitalism; a massive program of austerity; and the reduction of taxes on businesses.

Romney repeated Republican calls for repealing and replacing “Obamacare,” the health care reform that the current administration initiated to cut health care costs for business and corporations. Invoking the specter of Greece, where austerity measures dictated by the banks have thrown the country into Depression-level conditions of poverty and unemployment, Romney said: “We will cut the deficits and put America on the path to a balanced budget.”

In his speech on Wednesday, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan elaborated on this theme, declaring, “In this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time.” He called for limiting federal spending to 20 percent of GDP, which will require massive cuts to social programs—in fact, the virtual elimination of non-defense discretionary spending.

Neither Romney nor Ryan spelled out the devastating impact their proposals would have on Medicare. Instead, they have criticized the Obama administration over its $700 billion in cuts to the health program for the elderly, claiming that their alternative will “save” Medicare. This involves the transformation of the program into a subsidy for private insurance—a program that is, in fact, similar to Obamacare’s own “universal” health care, in that it requires individuals to purchase insurance from private firms.

Little was said by Romney on foreign policy, aside from a brief attempt to outflank Obama on the right in support for Israel and hostility to Iran and Russia.

The New York Times pointed to the basic unanimity between the two parties on the expansion of American militarism, writing: “For decades, starting after the Vietnam War, the Republicans were able to present themselves as the tougher party on foreign and military policy. Mr. Obama has robbed them of that by being aggressive on counterterrorism and by flexing military and diplomatic muscle more successfully than President George W. Bush.”

A notable feature of Romney’s speech and of the entire convention was the heavy dose of identity politics, particularly Romney’s insistence that he favored greater access for women to positions of power and privilege. “Half of my cabinet and senior officials were women,” he said, “and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies.” Amid ever greater social inequality, such appeals have become an institutional element of American politics, not limited to the Democratic Party.

In general, if the Republicans can present themselves as offering something better for the American people, it is because of the record of the Obama administration, which has been one of complete subordination to the dictates of the financial aristocracy. If anything can be said to be true in Romney’s remarks, it is his comment that “You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job [Obama has] done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”

To the extent that such comments resonate, it only underscores the complete disconnect of the entire political system from the aspirations of masses of people.

Apart from this, Romney’s speech, like the convention as a whole, was filled with the vacuous sophisms and insipid rhetoric that are universal in American politics. The speech was broken up by chants of “USA! USA!” from the assembled gathering of right-wing delegates, the semi-fascistic detritus of American capitalism.

The initial media reaction was to praise Romney’s remarks, declaring it a “defining” speech, even “the best of Romney’s career.” The festival of reaction that is the Republican National Convention is thus presented as some sort of great and legitimate component of the American “political debate.”

The Republican convention is to be followed next week by the Democratic Party Convention—at which a somewhat different, though no less thorough, lying will be on display.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/mitt-romney-franciscan-friars-poor_n_1760580.html


WASHINGTON-- The Franciscan Action Network (FAN), a Catholic faith-based advocacy and civic engagement organization, is strongly criticizing Mitt Romney's recent ads and rhetoric regarding welfare programs and welfare recipients, urging him to spend some time in low-income communities.
"Our Christian tradition teaches that we are to treat the poor with dignity and to prioritize the poor in our policies as a society," the organization said in a press release on Thursday. "At a time when millions are struggling financially, it is degrading to talk about the 'dependency' of people hurting in this economy, as Gov. Romney did recently."
Rhett Engelking, a secular Franciscan in Milwaukee and member of FAN, has even personally invited Romney to visit with the low-income people he assists. “Political leaders would not talk about the poor in demeaning ways or cut job training programs if they spent more time with the people they are affecting with their policies," he said.
While faith-based anti-poverty and charity organizations have often criticized candidates and lawmakers for a perceived unwillingness to highlight and tackle issues affecting the very poor, FAN claims Romney's rhetoric goes a step further, unfairly using welfare recipients as political props.
FAN spokesman Lonnie Ellis told The Huffington Post that what Romney is doing is "worse than ignoring" poor people. He said Romney is essentially criticizing President Barack Obama for helping out low-income individuals. "It's saying look, 'President Obama is actually supporting poor people too much, or he's just giving a free ride to poor people,'" Ellis said. "So it's actually using poor people in a really bad way."
FAN's criticism, however, goes beyond the Romney campaign's rhetoric on welfare by condemning cuts to Pell Grants, Medicaid and Head Start programs put forth in the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and supported by Romney.
“With the political conversation now on ensuring that low-income people are working, the most blatant affront is that the Romney-Ryan Budget actually cuts job training programs for low-income people,” FAN Executive Director Patrick Carolan said in a statement.
The Romney campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.
While many Catholic groups have generally been supportive of Romney and Republicans on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, FAN joins several other prominent Catholic organizations in their harsh criticism of the Romney campaign's stance on welfare and the Ryan budget.
As ThinkProgress reported, NETWORK, a Catholic social justice advocacy group, has supported the national "Nuns On A Bus" tour, which is aimed at highlighting the negative effects of Ryan's proposed cuts, and invited Romney to spend a day with Catholic nuns helping the poor in their communities.
In April, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a series of letters to congressional lawmakers criticizing the Ryan budget, saying that fair budget solutions "must require shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and fairly addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs."
"The House-passed budget resolution," the Bishops said in the letter, "fails to meet these moral criteria."

Mitt Romney Popularity after RNC Convention Tampa Florida August 2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 percent to 43 percent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll.

Romney was ahead by one point in Friday's online poll and two points in Thursday's survey as his campaign came under a blaze of media attention at the convention in Tampa, Florida.

In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Romney urged voters to get behind him and help rebuild the economy. His address followed three days of speeches by Republicans, including testimonies from Romney's relatives and friends aimed at improving the image of a candidate who is often seen as stiff or aloof.

"This wasn't a lightning bolt convention," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. "Comparatively speaking, this was a more muted convention in general ... So it doesn't surprise me that (the bump in polls) wasn't a great deal bigger."

Post-convention poll bounces are common and typically short-lived, and Obama could see one himself next week after he formally accepts his party's nomination for a second term at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But with the candidates treading water in a dead-heat race, Clark said she expected polls to remain extremely close all the way to the November 6 vote.

Romney's muted benefit from the convention may be in part because of his decision to unveil his vice-presidential pick, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, weeks before the convention.

The convention was also overshadowed by Hurricane Isaac, which caused the cancellation of Monday's events, as well as a bizarre performance right before Romney's speech of Hollywood star Clint Eastwood, who addressed an imaginary Obama in an empty chair.

The Reuters/Ipsos rolling poll measures sentiment during the two-week convention season by polling over the previous four days.

The survey released on Saturday found that of registered voters who have seen, heard or read at least something about the convention, 39 percent thought it was excellent or good, with nearly as many saying it was average.

Among Republicans, 65 percent said the convention went well and 31 percent rated it average.

On Friday, the poll found Romney improving his standing with voters on various favorable characteristics, such as being "a good person" or "tough enough for the job."

Those gains largely ebbed on Saturday, but Romney continued to rise in the key category of likeability. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed found him likeable, a one-point gain from Friday. Obama's likeability lost one point to 47 percent.

The two candidates also emerged neck-in-neck in the question of who "has the right values," with Romney at 38 percent and Obama at 39 percent. On Monday, Obama led in this category by nine points with 43 percent.

For the survey, a sample of 1,505 of American registered voters was interviewed online. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

http://news.yahoo.com/poll-romneys-bounce-convention-looks-short-lived-201257488.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney

Der Stern Paul Ryan more Dangerous than Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin was not physically present when Paul Ryan, her successor as Republican vice presidential candidate, took the stage at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Wednesday night. Nevertheless, she loomed over the proceedings.

With Palin now largely an object of ridicule, it is easy to forget just how engaging she was four years ago when she made her opening speech as John McCain's vice presidential candidate. Immediately, she transfixed both the convention and millions watching on television. And her speech culminated in the now famous sentence that the only difference between a "hockey mom" and a pitbull was lipstick.

The world listened with fascination because they sensed the fighting spirit of a woman who was once nicknamed "Barracuda" on the basketball court. And they also listened in fear. Within half and hour, Palin had, in the view of many Europeans, ousted George W. Bush as the defining symbol of a hard and sometimes ruthless America.
Paul Ryan is not being compared to a barracuda. Instead, he reminds some more of the Jimmy Stewart character in the film classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which tells the story of an upstanding citizen who travels to the US capital to remind politicians of their obligations. Like Stewart, Ryan also comes across as an amiable man next door -- a normal guy who, with a smile but also with resolve, tells his fellow citizens to finally put the public finances in order.
Determination of a Crusader
That was how he came across in Tampa. While Palin attacked the Democrats like a pitbull, Ryan resembled more "a pitbull with a smile," as New York Times correspondent Jeff Zeleny wrote on Twitter. At times, he even seemed like a harmless puppy. After all, Ryan is just 42, the same age as Mitt Romney's eldest son. The candidate looked more like a choirboy than a political extremist.
But behind Ryan's puppy-like face is the determination of a crusader. His soft words during the convention speech revealed a hard line.
Unlike Palin, who became candidate without much preparation, Ryan has been preparing for his appearance on the grand political stage ever since he entered Congress 14 years ago. Romney's running mate has a battle plan ready that will have a bigger impact on America's democracy than all of Palin's rhetorical attacks put together. It is nothing less than a declaration of war on social solidarity in America.
Ryan's political philosophy draws on the writings of the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, who condemned the modern welfare state as a "road to serfdom." As a young man, the Republican politician devoured Ayn Rand's capitalist Bible "Atlas Shrugged," which glorifies selfishness as a noble virtue. Rand depicted the world as a kind of jungle, where the strong are always right and the weak have only themselves to blame for their own weakness.
Slash-and-Burn Approach
Ryan's own philosophy calls for making cuts that will affect the weak. Ryan would like to see the introduction of a voucher system to replace Medicare and supports the repeal of President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, which would affect the 30 million Americans who would receive health insurance under his reform. But cuts would also reach further, to government protection against epidemics, for example, or even to fire fighters. In Ryan's stripped-down state, there would be little money available for such luxuries.
But wouldn't such a slash-and-burn approach actually reduce America's massive debt? Many experts believe it is very unlikely. After all, Ryan also wants to give more to the rich. He would reduce their taxes, so that Mitt Romney, say, who has an estimated personal fortune of around $250 million, would only face a tax rate of 0.82 percent.
The people this would benefit most are billionaire Republican donors. But Ryan still sees himself as a man of the people. He loves to quote Ronald Reagan's assertion that, when the rich have more, their wealth will "trickle down" to all citizens. He seems to forget that the results of that experiment are well known. In 1982, Reagan had to massively increase taxes because the US budget deficit had grown so huge.
But that doesn't shake Ryan's convictions. In terms of hypocrisy, he is a worthy heir to those Republicans who condemn the state but are happy to use it when they want to ban something that does not fit into their worldview. Ryan, who is supposedly so skeptical about government, has supported more abortion restrictions than his party colleague Todd Akin, who recently caused a scandal with his remarks about "legitimate rape."
Cold Comfort
In terms of foreign policy, too, Ryan supports a strong state of the hawkish variety touted by American neocons. Even the right-wing Weekly Standard, the same conservative publication that drove George W. Bush to invade Iraq and who "discovered" Palin four years ago, recommended Ryan as candidate.

Palin was not able to prove herself as a leader of the angry conservatives, for want of expertise and ideas. Ryan, on the other hand, knows exactly what he wants to achieve in the White House -- better, in fact, that his boss Romney does. It is strange that the number two has a plan ready, but the number one does not, wrote The Economist.

Mitt Romney, 65, will be quickly forgotten among Republicans, should he lose the election. Paul Ryan, 42, however, is likely to win, even if he loses now at Romney's side. He still has many years to influence the American right.
And even if the man has a warm smile, that prospect is cold comfort

Republican Candidate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin Born into Family of Wealth

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John "Sly" Sylvester, a radio commentator and Democratic operative in Madison, Wis., was dining at a Mexican restaurant in Washington with then-Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold about 20 years ago when a young Paul Ryan walked up.

"He was our waiter," Sylvester said. Feingold knew Ryan's late father and, as they chatted, Ryan "said he even used to listen to my show when he was a kid," Sylvester recalled.

Examples like that have helped Ryan, soon-to-be the GOP's vice presidential nominee, burnish his credentials as a youthful working-class guy.

"I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, when I was flipping burgers at McDonald's, when I was standing in front of that big Hobart machine washing dishes, or waiting tables, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life," Ryan recently told a crowd at a high school in suburban Denver. "I thought to myself, I'm the American dream on the path or journey so that I can find happiness however I define it myself."

It drew big applause.

And yet Ryan, 42, was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., the son of a successful attorney and the grandson of the top federal prosecutor for the western region of the state. Ryan grew up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includes investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies.

The seeming contradiction appears to have its roots in a family crisis in 1986, when at the age of 16, Ryan discovered his father dead of a heart attack.

The death of Paul Murray Ryan forced the family to make adjustments. Ryan's mother went back to work. And Ryan took up jobs, as well.

After graduating in 1992 from Miami University, a public college in Ohio, he went to work as an intern and then as a committee professional staffer on Capitol Hill for Sen. Bob Kasten, a Wisconsin Republican, who was defeated that same year by Feingold. When Kasten was voted out, Ryan lost his job. He went to work at the Tortilla Coast restaurant on Capitol Hill, where he ran into Feingold. In 1993, he left behind his hourly job and began as a speechwriter at Empower America, the think tank formed by former congressman and George H.W. Bush Cabinet secretary Jack Kemp and other conservatives, according to a Ryan campaign spokesman.

The spokesman said people could interpret the candidate's messages about his youth "however they like, but I don't know that I'd say it's a message of humble beginnings. Rather a message of hard work and upward mobility. And, of course, work was also important as a young man with the passing of his father while still in high school."

But there was also more to it than work. Ryan's rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family connections and wealth. The larger Ryan family has repeatedly helped the candidate along in his career, giving him a job when he needed one and piling up tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

In the year after his father's death, Ryan's maternal grandmother set up the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, which remains an important part of Ryan's finances with assets of up to half a million dollars, according to the congressman's 2011 financial disclosure statement. Ryan continues as the general partner running the entity for the family.

Court records indicate Ryan's father left a probate estate of $428,000, though the number of assets existing outside the will or the probate remains unknown. Ryan was to receive $50,000 when he turned 30. The will leaves the bulk of the estate to Ryan's mother, who now lives in an oceanfront condo in Florida.

In addition to the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, Ryan also benefits from another family entity, Ryan Limited Partnership, which was established in March 1995 by an aunt. Ryan's share of that is worth up to $500,000. Ryan makes no investment decisions in either partnership, the campaign spokesman said.

By the time Ryan had entered Congress in 1999 at the age of 28 and filed his first disclosure statement, he reported assets between $167,000 and $1.3 million, owned a home and had three rental units.

The next year, Ryan married Janna Little, a tax attorney, and his income skyrocketed. (Ryan reported gross income of $323,416 in 2011.)

Of the Ryans' maximum estimated assets of $7.6 million, Janna's holdings account for about $6.5 million. She is the daughter of Dan and Prudence Little, two lawyers in Madill, Okla., who over the years have overseen a vast network of land and oil and gas mineral rights in the Red River area straddling southern Oklahoma and northern Texas.

The wealth derived from Janna's grandfather, Reuel Winfred Little, a self-made millionaire several times over in oil and gas interests and other ventures. He arrived in Madill in 1927 after graduating from the University of Oklahoma law school, with just $25 and a second-hand typewriter. He invented and patented a type of injector used to poison trees, the Little Tree Injector. He made separate fortunes in legal work and redeveloping former military housing.

Meanwhile, the Ryan extended family was building up its own empire in construction, starting with Patrick Ryan, the congressman's great-grandfather. Ryan's branch of the family did not stay in the construction business, and Ryan has no financial interest in it today, the campaign spokesman said. But in 1998, when Ryan returned to Janesville to begin his first run for Congress, he briefly took a job with Ryan Inc. Central, a Wisconsin-based road grading company.

The Ryan roots run deep in Janesville.

Patriarch Patrick Ryan sent Ryan's grandfather, Stanley M. Ryan, to the University of Wisconsin law school, and he was named U.S. attorney for the western district of Wisconsin when he was 24 by President Harding. He rose to prominence in Janesville as a private attorney, serving on a bank board and as chairman of the fire and police commission. When he died, judges from all over the state came to his funeral. Ryan's father was also a prominent attorney, practicing in Janesville until his death.

Ryan and his family now live in a Georgian Revival home in Janesville that was once owned by the president of the Parker Pen Co. and former chairman of the state Republican Party. The congressman's aunt, uncle, cousin and brother all live within blocks of his home in the historic Courthouse Hill district.

Since first running for Congress in 1998, Ryan has brought in at least $40,000 in contributions from cousins, second cousins and others in the Ryan Inc. construction business. And that's not counting money received from his siblings and many other cousins. Ryan's brother Tobin, an private equity firm executive, has given him $4,250; Stanley, another brother, has given $4,000; and Janet Ryan Rock, a sister, has given $4,000.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ryan-assets-20120826,0,3026282.story

Guess who is not invited to the Republican Convention Tampa Florida August 2012

The 2012 Republican National Convention Tampa Florida

AUGUST 27, 2012 – AUGUST 30, 2012 | TAMPA, FLORIDA

Welcome to the official website of the 2012 Republican National Convention.
History will be made in Tampa August 27-30, when 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternate delegates from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories gather together to nominate the next president of the United States at the 40th Republican National Convention.
GOPConvention2012.com is your first source for news and information about the Republican Convention. You can learn about our party’s history, share some Conventional Wisdom (our official blog) and learn about “Convention Without Walls,” an innovative program that allows you access to the convention from anywhere in the world.

Have fun guys and Pop-Corn and best of luck.

Mitt Romney Republican Candidate Do Not Cry Baby

Do not cry baby You Do not have to vote for me.