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Thom's blog
Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney & complete destruction of the middle class
The GOP ticket is set – Mitt Romney will be running for president alongside Republican Congressman from Wisconsin – Paul Ryan. Ryan is the powerful House Budget Committee Chairman who this year authored the most radical budget to ever pass the House of Representatives. Newt Gingrich referred to the Ryan Budget as “right-wing social engineering” – and it’s an appropriate description, since it decimates the poor – with more than $3 trillion in cuts to programs for low-income Americans.
The Ryan Budget slashes the Medicaid program on which so many working families depend on – cutting it by one-third over the next ten years. It ends Medicare as we know it, raising the eligibility age and turning guaranteed health insurance for seniors into a voucher program that will result in seniors paying more than double what they currently pay in out-of-pocket costs. It screws college students with huge cuts to Pell Grants that will affect more than one million Americans.
Yet despite all these cuts, Ryan’s budget doesn’t balance itself for several decades. That’s because it also includes massive tax cuts for the rich – giving the average tax cuts of a quarter-million dollars each year – while raising taxes on all Americans who make less than $30,000 a year. And it includes preserving billions in taxpayer subsidies to transnational oil corporations. According to the Economic Policy Institute – the Ryan Budget will kill more than 8 million jobs over the next several years – taking the unemployment rate to nearly 12% by 2014.
Over the next few months, some political pundits will comment on how “bold” or “courageous” Paul Ryan is for taking on sacred cows like "entitlement" programs. But there’s nothing “bold” or “courageous” about giving more tax cuts to the rich and cutting off more benefits for the poor. That’s exactly what’s been going on for thirty years in America, and Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney want to finish the job that Reagan started – the complete destruction of the middle class.
-Thom
(What's your opinion of Paul Ryan being on the ticket? Tell us here.) |
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 9pm and 11pm... Paul Ryan's great big 'progressive' problem... (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Need to Know: Paul Ryan's great big 'progressive' problem...- John Nichols, The Nation Magazine / Author-"Uprising" 
Screwed: The skeleton in Paul Ryan's closet...Ayn Rand- Gary Weiss, journalist / author-"Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul" - Sam Knight, Freelance journalist & contributor-Salon / News Producer-RT TV
The Best of the Rest of the News...
Drone invasion in Vegas.- Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder, human rights group Global Exchange and peace group CODEPINK
Daily Take: The most important question is not being asked in this election...
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Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
Syndicated columnist & Democratic strategist Karl Frisch in for Thom today... 
Hour One: Paul Ryan as veep choice- Ben LaBolt, Obama for America
Paul Ryan’s Youth Won’t Slow GOP’s Demo Death March
Hour Two: Palin won't speak at convention / pebble mine fiasco- Shannyn Moore, Shannyn Moore Show (weekdays 6-9pm on KOAN 1020AM/95.5FM) & Moore Up North/syndicated columnist
Gabby Giffords returns home / also Kyrsten's run for congress- Kyrsten Sinema, Candidate for Congress (D-AZ, 9th district) / Former AZ State Senator / Attorney & adjunct professor at ASU
Hour Three: Paul Ryan...plus, who is Harry Reid's source on Romney not paying taxes- Markos Moulitsas, Founder-Daily Kos / Author-"American Taliban: How Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists to the Radical Right"
Meet Paul Ryan: Climate Denier, Conspiracy Theorist, Koch Acolyte- Brad Johnson, Forecast the Facts (former climate reporter for Think Progress)
And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...
The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...TAG, YOU'RE IT!!!!!!!!! (OCCUPY SOMETHING!!!!!)
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Friday's Daily Stack 
Attorney Mike Papantonio, host of "Ring of Fire Radio" in for Thom this week 
Hour One: News of the day- Cliff Schecter, National Progressive PR Strategist / Nationally syndicated columnist-Al Jazeera English
The "climate criminals" burning our planet to the ground- Gaius Publius, AmericaBlog
Hour Two: money, politics and the campaign for President- Craig Holman, Government Affairs Lobbyist, Public Citizen
Municipal bankruptcies on the rise?- Thomas Ferguson, The Roosevelt Institute
Hour Three: defective medical device disfiguring women- Robert Price, Attorney-Levin Law
Why the TX education system is heading back to the dark ages- Danny Weil, Investigative Reporter-Truthout
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Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
Hour One: Paul Ryan's BIG problem with progressives- John Nichols, The Nation Magazine
And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...
The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...TAG, YOU'RE IT!!!!!!!!! (OCCUPY SOMETHING!!!!!)
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Thom's Poll
Is Paul Ryan a Fascist?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 8/10/12: The Bigger Picture: Beyond Fukushima
Thom talks at length with Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear in tonight's "Bigger Picture" discussion on nuclear power. In tonight's "Conversations with Great Minds" Thom talks with NSA Whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Kirk Wiebe.
Thom Hartmann on the News - August 10, 2012
Jim Javinsky fills in for Thom Hartmann commenting on the news for Friday, August 10, 2012.
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 Thom and Louise Hartmann founded the New England Salem Children's Village (NESCV) in New Hampshire in 1979. With states delaying payment for the children they entrust to the village, they need help with cash flow. Can you help? Now on Facebook. |
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Show Info
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 9pm and 11pm... Paul Ryan's great big 'progressive' problem... (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Need to Know: And the veep is...Paul Ryan?!- John Nichols, The Nation Magazine - Sam Knight, Freelance journalist & contributor-Salon / News Producer-RT TV
Screwed: - Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder, human rights group Global Exchange and peace group CODEPINK
The Best of the Rest of the News...
- Mike Elk, Reporter-Working In These Times.
Daily Take:
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