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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Meet 'Mr. Nice Guy' Paul Ryan

As I noted in my previous post, nearly everyone in the mainstream media happily and lazily refers to Paul Ryan as "very smart" despite very mixed evidence in that regard in his educational and professional (career politician) achievements.  Similarly, they almost always call him a truly "nice guy," "genial" and invariably willing to take part in very respectful debate.  So watch this 3-minute debate with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz from CNN over the Ryan plan and Medicare/Social Security.  Check out Mr. Nice Guy's eye-rolling--like a high school junior--and two references to Schultz as not engaging in "adult conversation," the constant smirk, and more.  Also ask if he had done that with a male colleague.

 Imagine this lad as president (and see new David Frum takedown).  Also: the cynicism of his claims about "Obama cutting Medicare funds."  And we haven't even gotten to false media meme #3 yet: that Ryan has been a "budget hawk" (despite his many budget-busting votes).

3 comments:

Frances said...

Does Congress have some sort of 401k instead of Social Security? Otherwise, what Ryan said makes no sense. Is their SS just like ours or not? That's not a matter of opinion.

If Social Security had been privatized as Pres. Bush wanted, and the GOP still wants, senior citizens depending on SS would have been wiped out in the 2008 crash. This is why gambling with pension funds should be illegal.

Madeleine said...

Unfortunately, some times facts are treated as a matter of opinion.

Members of Congress do pay into Social Security. Additionally Congress has it's own pension plan and members also have option of participating in a 401K type plan.


http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%270E%2C%2APLC8%22%40++%0A

This is how S.S. are invested:
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/investheld.html

These are articles on the Chilean model:
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1ARAA_enUS460US460&sugexp=chrome,mod=12&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=chile+privatization+of+retirement+accounts

Madeleine said...

Unfortunately, some times facts are treated as a matter of opinion.

Members of Congress do pay Social Security. Additionally, Congress has a pension plan and members can participate in a 401K type plan.

http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%270E%2C%2APLC8%22%40++%0A

How S.S. funds managed:
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/investheld.html

Articles re Chilean model:
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1ARAA_enUS460US460&sugexp=chrome,mod=12&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=chile+privatization+of+retirement+accounts