In fact, the
tenets of Ryan Republicanism are so extreme that they even offend the pioneers
of trickle-down economics. "Ryan
takes out the ax and goes after programs for the poor -- which is the last thing
you ought to cut," says David Stockman, who served as Ronald Reagan's
budget director. "It's ideology run
amok."
A look at the bills that Republicans have
passed since they took control of the House in 2010 offers a clear blueprint of
the agenda that a Romney administration would be primed to establish:
Republicans
in Congress have repeatedly put ideology before creating jobs. Example:
For more than a year, they've
refused to put President Obama's jobs bill up for a vote, even though
projections show it would create nearly 2 million jobs without adding a penny
to the deficit. The reason? The $447 billion bill would have to be entirely paid for through a surtax on
millionaires.
Second
example: the Republicans' signature initiative last
year -- the debt-ceiling standoff -- was a known jobs-killer, clearly applying
the brakes to the economic recovery. From
February through April 2011, the economy had been adding 200,000 jobs a month. But during the uncertainty created by this
congressional impasse, job creation was cut in half for every month the
standoff continued. And according to the
Economic Policy Institute, the immediate spending cuts required by the
debt-ceiling compromise are likely to shrink the economy by $43 billion this
year, killing nearly 323,000 jobs. This
is putting ideology before job creation, the American people be damned.
What Ryan
markets as his "Path to Prosperity" would make things even worse: The draconian cuts in his latest budget,
according to the Economics Policy Institute, would put an additional drag on
the economy, destroying another 4.1 million jobs by 2014.
The Republican War Against Women
Last year,
the House passed a bill that would prohibit women from purchasing insurance
plans that cover abortion. The so-called
Protect Life Act would also allow hospitals to refuse a dying woman an abortion
that would save her life. Ryan himself
co-sponsored legislation that would have made it impossible for impoverished
victims of rape and incest to receive abortions unless their assault met a
narrow definition of "forcible rape." Under the bill's language, for instance,
federal abortion coverage would be denied to a 12-year-old girl impregnated by
a 40-year-old man -- unless she could prove she fought back.
And when
they weren't trying to force women to birth babies for rapists, the GOP House
was voting to make it easier for would-be criminals to carry concealed firearms. In the first major gun legislation passed
after their colleague Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by one Jared
Loughner, the House sided with her attempted murderer, passing an NRA-backed
measure that would have undercut state limits on concealed-carry permits. The bill would "make it easier for crazies
like Jared Loughner to pack heat on our streets and in our communities."
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