LIES AND UNTRUTHS

ACTUALLY........The media wants us to believe that Governor Romneys performance at the debate, on October 4, was a stunning performance, praising his preparedness. Well coached possibly, but to me he appeared to have a somewhat frazzled look about him, almost constantly blinking his red rimed eyes, as if to ask "am I doing this right".  Yes, he succeeded to pull off what he started to do, but he only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers. Can you believe - 27 lies in 38 minutes?  According to the number crunchers, that's about .71 lies per minute.  And yes!  This is fact-checked.  Now that's an accomplishment, albeit not one to be proud of!! I'm not trying to write a book here, so I'll try to briefly pass these untruths on to you for your own examination.  I can't rebut all these lies here on my post, but if your interested you can find them on the internet.  Just go to "27 lies in 38minutes". These are only a few of the major lies from the 27, now you can look up the facts and decide for yourself.  Remember, honesty is the best policy.......so in the words of Governor Mitt Romney:    

• 1)  "Mr. President all of the increase in natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land."

• 2)  "I don't have a $5 trillion tax cut.  I don't have a tax cut of a scale you're talking about.

• 3)  "My view is that we ought to provide tax relief to people in the middle-class.  But I'm not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high income people.

• 4)  "My number one principal is, there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit.  I want to underline will not under any circumstances raise taxes on the middle-income families.  I will lower taxes on middle-income families. 

• 6)  "I saw a study today that you were going to raise taxes by $3,000 to $4,000 on middle class families."

• 7)  "I'd like to bring money back from overseas".  (Please check this one in depth)

• 8)  "I will repeal Obamacare", get rid of "Big Bird" and cut PBS broadcasting."

• 9)  "I will take the Medicaid dollars that go to the states and say to a state, you're going to get what you did last year, plus 1% inflation, then you take care of the poor the way you think best."

• 10) Concerning Medicare - "preexisting conditions are covered under my plan."

TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING  BUT THE TRUTH

OUR CHILDREN ARE AT RISK ! ! !

ACTUALLY....... It's not well known, but almost 1/3 of America's kids get their health care from Medicaid, which is a program that serves the poor.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's plans are to severely cut federal funding, which clearly will effect Medicaid and would shrink the number of kids getting health care. In his own words Romney said "I'm not concerned about the very poor". Both Romney and Ryan are in agreement to transform medicaid from an entitlement into a "block grant" program that would give each state a certain amount of money each year to spend on health care services for the poor.

Children's advocates are concerned in particular about the kids losing their benefits if the plan is adopted.  With the cuts that Ryan proposed in a budget adopted by the House Republicans last March, all children covered today would not be able to keep their health benefits.

America's children make up about about 1/3 of Medicaids beneficiaries.  The rest is pregnant women, people with disabilities, and the elderly.   The President of the American Academy of Pediatrics says that taking money from the Medicaid program would assure that a number of children would be dropped. 

Medicaid funding is a big and growing problem.The Federal and state governments spent $404 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010.   Enrollment is up - at least 10 million people have joined Medicaid since 2007, just before the recession began.  Spending and enrollment grew because more people needed assistance, not because the program is not controlling costs.  Romney has not yet issued a detailed proposal, however according to his website, he does support converting Medicaid into a block program.

According to Henry J. Kaiser Family Program analysis of his 2011 plan, Ryan's proposal would cause between 10 million and 27 million people to loose their Medicaid benefits.  Romney and Ryan also want to repeal the health care reform law, which will add 11 million people to Medicaid starting in 2014.  Pennsylvania has removed 90,000 kids from it's Medicaid program since last August.  "Block grant" proposals would give Governors more flexibility to shrink Medicaid.  The "block grant" program in Ryan's budget would give states the freedom to innovate, and I seriously dislike that term!! That includes the freedom to purge people from the Medicaid rolls.  Children's advocates may be focused on kids but the elderly and disabled are also vulnerable.

ROMNEY AND RYAN'S HEALTH CARE PLAN WILL ENDANGER OUR CHILDREN

RYAN - THE DEFICIT HAWK ????

ACTUALLY......  A long time ago the media decided that Paul Ryan was an honest, reasonable, serious conservative and that his proposals were somewhat worthy even if you don't like him. Well, guess what, he isn't honest and not reasonable.  He may be a conservative, but the majority of the people simply don't like him. He has this super-duper budget he's proposed that will make us think in 10 years we've all risen to a better life.

Mr. Ryan proposes big cuts in tax rates - on top income brackets and corporations. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center did the math, and the revenue loss from these cuts comes to $4.3 trillion over the next 10 years.

Mr. Ryan also has proposed large cuts in Medicaid.  He wants to turn this program over to the states while reducing funding under the current policy.  (He hasn't given us the plan for the states to fund this project, which they can't unless they receive that funding from another source.) That saves about $800 billion.  He proposes huge cuts in food stamps (another real blow to the poor) saving perhaps another $130 billion in addition to a variety of other cuts including reduced aid to college students.  We're at about $1 trillion with these cuts. He is also including the $716 billion in Medicare savings that are part of Obamacare (he wants to "get rid" of everything else in that act). 

Now, if Paul Ryan's proposals were calculated , we have $4.3 trillion in tax cuts, offset by about $1.7 trillion in spending cuts  -  remember the tax cuts benefit the top 1% and the spending cuts would be taken away from low-income families.  Over all, the deficit would be increased by around two and half trillion dollars.

Here are some examples of his not being reasonable:  He says he will offset the tax cuts by getting rid of enough tax deductions to make up the lost revenue, which deductions - he won't say:  he says he has a secret tax and spending plan which will turn his total plan into deficit reduction - shhh, he won't say. The Ryan plan would end Medicare as we know it, and the nations fiscal future is often equivalent to slashing Medicare and Social Security. The Ryan plan would most assuredly increase, not reduce, the deficit.

He's not a serious conservative, he's a rebel rousing, obnoxious, loud mouth, trouble maker. 

PAUL RYAN - I AM WOMAN - HEAR ME ROAR

ACTUALLY..... This topic could really get me ranting overtime - did you know that Paul Ryan has voted 50 times against a woman's right to choose?  He is 'anti-choice' for anything that would protect women and their health.  He supported the republican's "Protect Life Act", which is nothing more than "Let Women Die".   This act would allow hospitals to refuse to provide a woman emergency abortion care, even if it was a matter of life or death, and he has no sympathy toward women who have been raped or in cases of incest.  It's interesting that I have just read that a "Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape."(That's a bit of a 'flipper' for Mitt Romney, who has said he opposed abortion).

Ryan cosponsored a measure that would force a woman to undergo an ultrasound before she can receive abortion care, even if her doctor doesn't recommend it and even if it is against the woman's will.  He has voted countless times against Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood itself isn't just about abortion.  It covers all types of cancer screening and prevention, STD testing, and councils women on contraception.   About 80% of the plans users are over age 20, and 75% have incomes below 150% of the poverty line.  It's interesting to know that federal law already forbids Planned Parenthood from using the funds it receives from the government for abortions.  Without Planned Parenthood, taxpayers will end up bearing the expense for preventable cancers and sexually transmitted diseases.

Ryan wants to criminalize some forms of birth control.  He cosponsored a bill that could ban in-vitro fertilization, with criminal charges should something happen to the resulting embryos - or as Ryan would say, the resulting people. For Ryan, if you can't have kids, don't bother trying at all.

If  Romney is trying to get the women to vote for him in November, it's surprising he picked a running mate who wants to pass a "personhood" measure. This "personhood" bill could even outlaw several of the most common forms of birth control, even the pill, and restrict fertility treatments as well as put an end to stem cell research. Ryan is known for his sponsorship of federal legislation to declare that human life begins at fertilization.  "Personhood" has failed on every state ballot.

Currently, 21 million low income women count on Medicaid for basic health care.   Ryan would use his budget to reduce access to women's health care.  He would bar Planned Parenthood from participating in federal programs like Medicaid, denying access to preventative care for millions of women.

Rayn's budget also calls for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which requires insurance coverage for preventative services like mammograms, cancer screenings and birth control, with no copay.  The act also bans insurance companies from discriminating  between men and women and bans the practice of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, including pregnancy.  Mitt Romney has said he is in accordance with all of these conditions.  He acquired a long track record with Ryan in Washington on these issues.  However, the margin of victory by Democrats with women voters has the potential to sink the GOP Presidential ticket and the Senate and House races as well.

"I AM STRONG,  I AM INVINCIBLE,  I AM WOMAN"...... AND I WON'T SIT STILL WHILE PAUL RYAN WAGES WAR ON WOMEN.

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

ACTUALLY....In my last post, I mentioned that I would have some information on President's Obama's 2009 stimulus package.  I have done some research and this is as close as I can get.  I'm the first to admit that this is indeed a confusing project.  This package was passed by the House in 2009,without the need for any GOP votes.

According to the administration, not that all the stimulus money has been spent; it has been committed for specific projects and programs. There’s still about $168 billion in stimulus money that has not actually been paid out. But it says nearly all of that money already is tied up in contracts with companies, obligations with states and local governments, promised taxpayer relief and commitments to government programs.

Raymond Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association has said "for states, much of that money for Medicaid and education has been worked into budgets, so if Congress took it back it could leave shortfalls that would be a serious problem because they’re depending on that money.”

According to  Liz Oxhorn, the White House’s spokeswoman for the economic recovery program tells us,  "these remaining dollars include funding for major high-speed rail, clean energy and other infrastructure projects that in many cases have already been awarded and just haven’t been formally put under contract.
Rescinding these funds could halt job-creating projects years in the making where preliminary work in some cases is already under way.”