On Aug. 13, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released the following statement:
Candidate Mark Meadows Has New Running Mate: Paul Ryan’s Republican Budget That Massively Cuts Medicare
Republican congressional candidate Mark Meadows (NC-11) has a new running mate: Congressman Paul Ryan’s Republican budget that makes massive cuts to seniors’ Medicare while protecting millionaires. Now that Mitt Romney picked Republican Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, Meadows has to defend his indefensible support for Ryan’s plan to give more tax breaks to millionaires, Big Oil and corporations that ship jobs overseas at the expense of Medicare for seniors. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Ryan plan supported by Meadows would raise health care costs for seniors by $6,400 while the Tax Policy Center found it would cut taxes for people making over $1 million a year by $394,000.
“With Paul Ryan at the top of the ticket, Republican candidate Mark Meadows can no longer hide his support for a budget that would deeply cut Medicare to give tax breaks to millionaires, Big Oil, and companies shipping jobs overseas,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The Republican budget is now Mark Meadows’s running mate as he must defend the indefensible – more tax cuts for millionaires and higher health care bills for seniors on Medicare. The American people have rejected Republicans’ support of the Ryan plan over and over, and will turn against Mark Meadows this November for supporting this extreme plan.”
A recent Democracy Corps poll found 66 percent of all voters and 72 percent of seniors in Republican-held Congressional seats have very serious or somewhat serious doubts about Ryan’s Republican budget that makes drastic cuts to Medicare.
BACKGROUND
Mark Meadows (NC-11) Called Ryan Budget Bold, But Criticized it for Not Making Cuts Now. In March 2012, Meadows said, “Congressman Paul Ryan again boldly sounds the alarm on the debt crisis. A powerful message.” He later criticized the budget for not making cuts now and said, “Not to be negative toward the Ryan budget, but we cannot afford to wait for the next congressmen to make these decisions. We need the current members of Congress to make the decision now.” [Macon County News, 5/24/12; Meadows for Congress Facebook, 3/16/12]
House Republicans Voted to End Medicare, Give Tax Breaks to Millionaires, Protect Tax Breaks for Big Oil. On April 15, 2011, House Republicans voted for a budget which “would essentially end Medicare.” If enacted, this budget would begin affecting millions of seniors almost immediately by increasing the costs on prescription drugs and long-term care. For future beneficiaries, the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will increase health care costs by an extra $6,359 by 2022. The Republican plan would also lower the top tax rate to 25% and will provide people with incomes over $1 million an average tax cut of $125,000 per year. The plan would secure no deficit-reduction contribution at all from closing special interest tax breaks, such as breaks for big oil companies. [H Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11; Wall Street Journal, 4/4/11; National Journal, 6/2/11; CBO, 4/5/11; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 4/20/11]
House Republicans Voted to Slash Medicare, Protect Tax Breaks for Big Oil and Millionaires, Encourage Companies to Ship Jobs Overseas. On March 29, 2012, House Republicans supported a budget that would end Medicare’s guaranteed benefit, protects $40 billion in tax breaks for big oil, provides people earning more than $1 million a year with an average tax cut of $394,000, and provides incentives for corporations to shift profits and jobs overseas. [H Con Res 112, Vote #151, 3/29/12; Center for American Progress, 3/20/12; Center for American Progress, 3/20/12; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/27/12; Tax Policy Center, Table T12-0078 and T10-0132; Citizens for Tax Justice, 3/22/12]
On Aug. 13, the National Republican Campaign Committee released the following statement:
Over the weekend, Obama’s deputy campaign manager touted his party’s $700 billion cuts to Medicare to pay for their big-government healthcare takeover as an achievement. In light of Heath Shuler tagging Hayden Rogers as the candidate that will ‘take over’ where he left off I wanted to pose a question to you as you follow just how eerily similar Rogers is to Shuler:
NRCC COMMENT: “Heath Shuler voted against repealing ObamaCare, slashing over $700 billion to Medicare. As western North Carolinian seniors watched their healthcare benefits slip away under Shuler’s watch, will Hayden Rogers ‘take over’ where he left off and choose ObamaCare as his running mate?” --- NRCC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek
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"A recent Democracy Corps poll found 66 percent of all voters and 72 percent of seniors in Republican-held Congressional seats have very serious or somewhat serious doubts about Ryan’s Republican budget that makes drastic cuts to Medicare."
Yep; now, let's see what Saint Ronald Reagan's Office of Budget and Management Director has to say about Ryan's proposed budget cuts:
“The Ryan Plan boils down to a fetish for cutting the top marginal income-tax rate for ‘job creators’ — i.e. the superwealthy — to 25 percent and paying for it with an as-yet-undisclosed plan to broaden the tax base,” Stockman wrote. “Of the $1 trillion in so-called tax expenditures that the plan would attack, the vast majority would come from slashing popular tax breaks for employer-provided health insurance, mortgage interest, 401(k) accounts, state and local taxes, charitable giving and the like, not to mention low rates on capital gains and dividends. The crony capitalists of K Street already own more than enough Republican votes to stop that train before it leaves the station.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/reagan-budget-director-attacks-paul-ryans-budget/
Of course, Ryan's brilliant plan for future Medicare recipients may offset this; who could resist vouchers and coupons that the elderly can redeem? 'Take 10% off the retail price for life-saving surgery, OR, get one operation at full price and the second one is half-price!'
By Dionysis
08/14/2012
And one more thing...does anyone else find irony in the fact that Romney touts his business 'acumen' and has made much of the need for people with 'business' experience (reflected in his proposed Constitutional Amendment requiring 3 years business experience to run for prez or vp), when Ryan has been nothing but a virtual ward of the state. Attended a public college and immediately began to work for politicians; that is all he has done...been a partisan political lackey.
By Dionysis
08/14/2012
"paying for it with an as-yet-undisclosed plan to broaden the tax base”
Meaning, tax the working poor. That's the dirty little secret of the Ryan approach to the budget. Remember the "Nearly Half of All Americans Don’t Pay Income Taxes" discussion from earlier this year? They think that if you work, but don't take home enough to qualify for federal income taxes after deductions, well, those deductions need to be reduced so you owe more to the IRS. The primary fallacy being that most of the working poor pay plenty of taxes - state, sales, Social Security, property, etc., and are stretched to the breaking point already.
But those multi-millionaires need another tax cut, so the difference has to be made up by taxing the poor.
By bsummers
08/14/2012