Empty Chair

FACT CHECK Ryan’s VP Speach

Paul Ryan’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention contained several false claims and misleading statements. Delegates cheered as the vice presidential nominee:

• Accused President Obama’s health care law of funneling money away from Medicare “at the expense of the elderly.” In fact, Medicare’s chief actuary says the law “substantially improves” the system’s finances, and Ryan himself has embraced the same savings.
• Accused Obama of doing “exactly nothing” about recommendations of a bipartisan deficit commission — which Ryan himself helped scuttle.
• Claimed the American people were “cut out” of stimulus spending. Actually, more than a quarter of all stimulus dollars went for tax relief for workers.
• Faulted Obama for failing to deliver a 2008 campaign promise to keep a Wisconsin plant open. It closed less than a month before Obama took office.
• Blamed Obama for the loss of a AAA credit rating for the U.S. Actually, Standard & Poor’s blamed the downgrade on the uncompromising stands of both Republicans and Democrats.

And when he wasn’t attacking Obama, Ryan was puffing up the record of his running mate, Mitt Romney, on taxes and unemployment.

Taking Money from Medicare?

Ryan continued the campaign’s false line of attack that Obama had “funneled” money out of Medicare to pay for the federal health care law “at the expense of the elderly.” But that’s contradicted by Medicare’s chief actuary, in a statement at the end of the most recent report of the system’s trustees (our emphasis added):

Medicare Actuary, April 23, 2012: [Obama's] Affordable Care Act makes important changes to the Medicare program and substantially improves its financial outlook …

Medicare’s money isn’t being taken away. The Affordable Care Act calls for slowing the growth in spending, a move that — if successful — would keep the hospital insurance trust fund solvent for longer than if the reductions didn’t happen.
Ryan himself proposed keeping most of these same spending cuts in his most recent “Path to Prosperity” budget. Yet, Ryan criticized Obama’s cuts as “the biggest, coldest power play of all” and suggested seniors would suffer as a result.

Ryan, Aug. 29: And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. … [T]hey just took it all away from Medicare, $716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.

The Affordable Care Act calls for a $716 billion reduction in the future growth of Medicare spending over 10 years, with most of that — about $415 billion — coming from a reduction in the future growth of payments to hospitals through Medicare Part A. And Medicare Part A’s trust fund, as we’ve explained before, is in trouble financially. It’s set to be insolvent in 2024, even with these spending cuts. Without them, the trust fund wouldn’t be able to fully pay projected benefits in 2016, the Medicare trustees estimate.

Deficit Commission

Ryan accused Obama of doing “exactly nothing” about recommendations from a bipartisan presidential commission to reduce the deficit. But Ryan himself was among a minority of commission members whose opposition scuttled the plan and prevented it from being sent automatically to Congress for action.

Ryan: He created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanks them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing. Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing — nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform’s report proposed deep spending cuts in both domestic and military spending, and an overhaul of the tax code that would have lowered rates but raised revenues — all in an attempt to slow the growth of government by $4 trillion over 10 years.

Many Republicans, including Ryan, opposed the military cuts and new tax revenue, while many Democrats opposed changes to Social Security that included raising the full retirement age.
The 18-member commission needed a super majority of 14 votes in order to bring the report to a vote in Congress. But it received the support of just 11 members. Seven members, including Ryan, opposed it, thus blocking congressional action.

In a statement on the final report, Ryan said he “could not support the plan in its entirety,” but said some elements of it were “worthy of further pursuit.”

Ryan opposed the commission’s approach to paying for lower federal income tax rates by taxing capital gains and dividends as ordinary income (see footnote on page 29). In his own latest budget plan, Ryan proposed to keep the current capital gains tax rate, arguing that to do otherwise “could precipitate a flight of capital away from job-creating businesses.”

Like Ryan, Obama thanked the commission in a Dec. 3, 2010, statement that promised to “study closely” its proposals for possible inclusion in his own budget plans. Nine months later, Obama submitted a deficit reduction plan to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that was designed to reduce the deficit by $3.6 trillion over 10 years through a package of spending cuts and tax hikes.

Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, tried to work out a so-called “Grand Bargain” that would have reduced the deficit through a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts — and even changes to Social Security. The New York Times reported that the Grand Bargain would have raised the retirement age and changed the formula for calculating benefits. But, as the Times reported, the deal fell through as members of Boehner’s caucus objected to raising taxes.
In short, both Ryan and Obama have proposed deficit-reduction plans — and each opposed the other’s plan.

Stimulus Deceit

Ryan falsely claimed that the stimulus failed to help taxpayers and that it “cut out” the American people. Actually, more than 25 percent of stimulus dollars went to provide tax relief for workers.

Ryan: [The stimulus] cost $831 billion. The largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government. … You, the American people of this country, were cut out of the deal.

The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation calculated that about $230 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided tax relief. Much of that money, about $116 billion, funded the Making Work Pay tax credit for workers. In 2009 and 2010, the credit gave up to $400 to individuals earning up to $75,000, and gave up to $800 to couples earning up to $150,000.

Janesville Plant Closing

Ryan cited the closing of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wis., as evidence of Obama’s failing to deliver on promises made in the 2008 presidential campaign. But as it happens, the plant closed before Obama even took office.

Ryan: My own state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.
A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.
Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

Here’s what Obama told workers during a campaign stop at the struggling GM plant in Janesville back in 2008:

Obama, Feb. 13, 2008: And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it’s where it will thrive. I want it to thrive …

It’s true that the plant didn’t last another year, as Ryan said. In fact, the Business Journal in Milwaukee wrote that the assembly plant shut down on Dec. 23, 2008, at the tail end of the Bush administration, a victim of the financial crisis and dwindling demand for the SUVs produced at the plant. That’s nearly one month before Obama was sworn into office.
About 100 workers were kept on in 2009 to finish a truck order and help shut down the plant, according to the Associated Press.

‘Downgraded America’

Ryan faulted Obama for a credit downgrade for which Ryan’s own party shares equal responsibility. Ryan said that “a presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close,” adding:

Ryan, Aug. 29: [Obama's presidency] began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United States; it ends with the downgraded America.

Ryan refers to the decision of Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, to downgrade its score for U.S. Treasury obligations from AAA to AA+ on Aug. 5, 2011. That took place just four days after Congress voted to raise the federal debt ceiling, following lengthy negotiations in which House Republicans sought to force concessions from Obama and Senate Democrats as the price for raising the ceiling and averting the first default on Treasury debt payments in U.S. history.
In its report, Standard & Poor’s blamed both Republicans and Democrats for failing to come to agreement on spending cuts or revenue increases sufficient to reduce U.S. deficits significantly. It said:

S&P, Aug. 5, 2011: The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. …
Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee [of Congress] decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options.

Ryan, of course, is among those Republicans opposed to any “new revenues” from tax increases.

Puffing Up Romney’s Record

Running through Romney’s credentials, Ryan boasted about Romney’s fiscal and jobs record as governor of Massachusetts. But there’s a bit less there than Ryan lets on.

Ryan: He was the Republican governor of a state where almost nine in 10 legislators are Democrats, and yet he balanced the budget without raising taxes. Unemployment went down, household incomes went up, and Massachusetts, under Gov. Mitt Romney, saw its credit rating upgraded.

It’s true that Romney balanced the state budget every year — as Massachusetts’ Constitution requires — and Romney never raised personal income taxes. But as we have noted whenever this claim has arisen — which has been frequently — Romney did hike government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars, and he also closed loopholes on some corporate taxes.

Ryan also said that under Romney, “unemployment went down.” That’s true. According to unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts went from 5.6 percent when Romney took office in January 2003 to 4.6 percent when he left office in January 2007.

But when considered in light of an improving national economy, Romney’s record on unemployment is a bit less impressive. Massachusetts’ unemployment rate was slightly lower than the national rate when Romney took office, and it was roughly the same as the national rate when he left.

http://factcheck.org/2012/08/ryans-vp-spin/

 

Fox News' Sally Kohn: Paul Ryan's RNC Speech 'Was Attempt To Set World Record For Blatant Lies'

According to Fox News columnist Sally Kohn, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday "was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech."

"On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold," Kohn wrote.

In a surprising move, Fox News joined CNN, The Huffington Post, the Washington Post's Wonkblog, and ThinkProgress in publishing a fact-check of the Republican vice presidential nominee's speech, finding that the speech was full of lies and misleading assertions.

Full Post

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Would Take Us Back—We Can't Afford That

Senator Patty Ritchie's Majority Leader denies request to release cost of recent mailings

Oswego County mailboxes have been flooded with flyers from New York State Senator Patty Ritchie, all taxpayer funded, however, the state will not release the cost of each mailing nor the targeted mailing list.

Some residents in the town and Village of Hannibal said they recently received a flyer from Senator Ritchie announcing the “Women of Distinction” display through July 19 at the Hannibal Free Library.

The flyer also promoted the library’s summer reading program. Not everyone in the Hannibal zip code received the flyer; several registered Democrats said it never arrived in their mailboxes.

A request was made under the Freedom of Information Law, for the cost of producing the flyer, the mailing cost, and the mailing list. The request was denied. “Please be advised that the information you request is not subject to disclosure pursuant to the provisions of the Rules of the Temporary President,” was the response from Francis W. Patience, secretary of the Senate.

The temporary president (majority leader) is Senator Dean Skelos.

When asked why not all residents in the town and village of Hannibal received the mailing, Ritchie’s press spokesperson Sarah Compo said the flyer was sent out to target those who may be interested in the events going on at the library to save on mailing costs.  POST

America Doesn't Need a Birther-in-Chief

Maybe??

Bush-Era Tax Cuts Will Cost U.S. Nearly $1 Trillion Over Next Decade

Letting the Bush-era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire on schedule at the end of 2012 would bring the government nearly $1 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s $823 billion in added revenue and $127 billion in interest to be exact, for a total $950 billion in ten-year deficit reduction.

The House voted in favor of extending the cuts earlier this month, but Obama has vowed to veto the measure, and lawmakers are likely to address the dispute after the elections. For his part, President Obama has said he supports extending the cuts for the middle class, or those making less than $250,000, while returning to the rates seen under President Clinton for anyone making more.

And it's not just lawmakers arguing over the cuts, a variety of organizations have sparred over their efficacy as well. On the one hand, the tax cuts are the single greatest contributor to public debt, according to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. On the other, some argue that letting the cuts expire may hurt small businesses, as well as provide an incentive for the wealthiest Americans to focus on forms of income that are less taxable.

Mitt Romney Tax Returns May Have Employed Legally Dubious Maneuvers, Tax Experts Say

Tax experts who have begun to examine the Bain Capital documents released Thursday by Gawker are raising questions as to whether presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has paid all the taxes he owed.

At issue are two tax-avoidance techniques employed by Bain Capital, the firm founded by Romney, which have been commonly used in the private equity world but have come under increasing legal scrutiny.

The first scheme involves owning U.S. dividend-paying stocks in an offshore account and pretending, for accounting purposes, not to own the stock. Instead, the taxpayer tells the Internal Revenue Service that he owns a derivative product that is identical in every way to the stock -- except it isn't the stock, so therefore no U.S. taxes are owed. It's called a "total return equity swap," because the buyer still gets the benefit -- the "total return" -- of owning the stock, or equity.

"This use of total return equity swaps, such as to avoid the U.S. dividend withholding tax, was very widespread for more than a decade, and may not be dead yet, although the IRS issued a shot-across-the-bow Notice concerning the practice in 2010," writes Daniel Shaviro, the Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation at New York University School of Law. "But taxpayers who engaged in it to avoid the dividend withholding tax were coming perilously close to committing tax fraud, in cases where the economic equivalence to direct ownership was too great."

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Legislator Amy Tresidder Questions County's Inaction on EEE

Oswego County officials have decided to hold off aerial spraying for mosquitoes infected with the West Nile virus.

The Town of Hastings board,  however, is the process of conducting its own aerial spraying. (And more recently the Town of West Monroe)

Legislator Amy Tresidder has asked at the two most recent meetings of the legislature if spraying would take place. The answer was no each time.

To date, mosquito samples taken from the New Haven and Central Square areas have tested positive for West Nile virus, however, as of press time, there has been no trace of EEE. 

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Unemployment for July

Unemployment Rates	July 12	June 12	July 11
Jefferson	9.4	9.5	8.8
Lewis	9.1	9.6	8.5
St. Lawrence	11.1	11.0	10.8
Oswego	10.5	10.9	9.8
New York State	9.1	9.1	8.3

Create New Ones

Unethical Commentary, Newsweek Edition

There are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson’s cover story in Newsweek — I guess they don’t do fact-checking — but this is the one that jumped out at me. Ferguson says:

The president pledged that health-care reform would not add a cent to the deficit. But the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation now estimate that the insurance-coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of close to $1.2 trillion over the 2012–22 period.

Readers are no doubt meant to interpret this as saying that CBO found that the Act will increase the deficit. But anyone who actually read, or even skimmed, the CBO report (pdf) knows that it found that the ACA would reduce, not increase, the deficit — because the insurance subsidies were fully paid for.

Now, people on the right like to argue that the CBO was wrong. But that’s not the argument Ferguson is making — he is deliberately misleading readers, conveying the impression that the CBO had actually rejected Obama’s claim that health reform is deficit-neutral, when in fact the opposite is true.

More than that: by its very nature, health reform that expands coverage requires that lower-income families receive subsidies to make coverage affordable. So of course reform comes with a positive number for subsidies — finding that this number is indeed positive says nothing at all about the impact on the deficit unless you ask whether and how the subsidies are paid for. Ferguson has to know this (unless he’s completely ignorant about the whole subject, which I guess has to be considered as a possibility). But he goes for the cheap shot anyway.

We’re not talking about ideology or even economic analysis here — just a plain misrepresentation of the facts, with an august publication letting itself be used to misinform readers. The Times would require an abject correction if something like that slipped through. Will Newsweek?

Vice President Joe Biden on Medicare - Blacksburg, VA

"The Same" - Obama for America TV Ad

Ryanomics is and always has been a con game

Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate led to a wave of pundit accolades. Now, declared writer after writer, we’re going to have a real debate about the nation’s fiscal future. This was predictable: never mind the Tea Party, Mr. Ryan’s true constituency is the commentariat, which years ago decided that he was the Honest, Serious Conservative, whose proposals deserve respect even if you don’t like him.

But he isn’t and they don’t. Ryanomics is and always has been a con game, although to be fair, it has become even more of a con since Mr. Ryan joined the ticket.

Let’s talk about what’s actually in the Ryan plan, and let’s distinguish in particular between actual, specific policy proposals and unsupported assertions. To focus things a bit more, let’s talk — as most budget discussions do — about what’s supposed to happen over the next 10 years.

On the tax side, Mr. Ryan proposes big cuts in tax rates on top income brackets and corporations. He has tried to dodge the normal process in which tax proposals are “scored” by independent auditors, but the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math, and the revenue loss from these cuts comes to $4.3 trillion over the next decade.

On the spending side, Mr. Ryan proposes huge cuts in Medicaid, turning it over to the states while sharply reducing funding relative to projections under current policy. That saves around $800 billion. He proposes similar harsh cuts in food stamps, saving a further $130 billion or so, plus a grab-bag of other cuts, such as reduced aid to college students. Let’s be generous and say that all these cuts would save $1 trillion.

On top of this, Mr. Ryan includes the $716 billion in Medicare savings that are part of Obamacare, even though he wants to scrap everything else in that act. Despite this, Mr. Ryan has now joined Mr. Romney in denouncing President Obama for “cutting Medicare”; more on that in a minute.   POST

Summer Cutting

GOP and social contract

"Facts" - Obama for America TV Ad

Oswego County clerk contract award: Was the process tainted?

Some Oswego County legislators on both sides of the aisle are alleging the process used to award a contract for data imaging services for the office of the County Clerk was tainted and the argument did not end with Thursday’s meeting of the legislature.

As legislators debated the issue of whether to award the contract to Info Quick Solutions, Inc. of Liverpool, Majority Leader Jack Proud noted that the company had the best references from those who use their data imaging system.

Minority Leader Mike Kunzwiler, however, said that when he made a request to County Administrator Phil Church to see the references, he was denied. The county provided comments from the users of each vendor, however, there is no indication who provided the comments to determine the authenticity.

IQS was the most costly vendor and had the lowest rating from a panel appointed to review the five request for proposals received by the county.

Despite the cost and panel review, the legislator approved awarding the contract to IQS by a 15-8 vote with two legislators absent.

During the debate, the question of whether the process was tainted was addressed by Kunzwiler and legislators Amy Tresidder and Jake Mulcahey, all Democrats, and Legislator Shawn Doyle, a Republican.

The blind review panel was appointed by Church, who autonomously handled the entire proposal process. Among the members were Kathryn Wolfe, who is the law clerk for Supreme Court Judge Norman Seiter, one of two judges Williams said is receiving the service for free. Wolfe’s husband, Andrew Wolfe, is the law clerk for Judge James McCarthy, the second judge Williams cited as receiving the service at no cost. 

The panel was comprised of one legislator from each caucus. Legislator Dan Farfaglia, the Democrat representative, was removed from the panel last month.

Doyle said he believes the process was tainted from the beginning.

“It troubles me that they didn’t release the references,” he said. “I’d like to see who gave these references. We only had the word of the administrator and he has misled us on multiple occasions in regard to this contract.”

Kunzwiler said the lack of releasing the names of those contacted to give references, lends to suspicion of the legitimacy of the comments.

It wasn’t only the lack of information in regard to the references that led to the controversy, the question of how County Clerk George Williams was able to recommend Info Quick Solutions, Inc. of Liverpool prior to the names of the bidders being revealed during a recent meeting of the legislature’s Community and Consumer Affairs Committee was raised by Mulcahey.          POST

Republican legislators support contract with highest taxpayer price and lowest rating!!

Following a lengthy and sometimes heated debate, Info Quick Solutions, Inc. was awarded a contract to provide data imaging services to the office of the county clerk.

Despite being the highest priced and receiving the lowest overall rating from a proposal review panel, a majority of Republican legislators supported the company.

For 45 minutes, legislators debated Thursday in the chambers of the Pulaski Court House.

IQS was given the lowest score of the five companies vying for the contract. IQS was given an overall score of 457.25 while Property Info Corp. had the highest score at 649 followed by ACS Systems with a score of 618.25. IMR received a score of 561.25 and New Vision was scored at 516.25.

It was an issue that was referenced several times by legislators who spoke in opposition.

Legislator Jake Mulcahey was the first to speak when the resolution was presented.

He questioned the request for proposal process, followed by the reading of a cost comparison between IQS and the four other bidding companies. He noted that the cost of one map from IQS will cost taxpayers $7 while the top rated vendor would charge 60 cents.

Minority Leader Mike Kunzwiler said the vote came down to the dollars, cents and the facts.

“This process was put in place to protect our taxpayers from exactly what’s happening today,” he said. “Today you put up a company that cost up to $300,000 or more (over the other bidders),” Kunzwiler said. “These are facts that taxpayers should know.”

Kunzwiler said that the IQS was receiving the contract “for pure political reasons.”

He added, “This is not for the taxpayers. There’s no other way you can spin it.”

He urged legislators to do the right thing for the taxpayers.

Republican Majority Leader Jack Proud explained the protocol of the legislature and the role of the seven oversight committees. He noted that the legislature has been 18 months without being able to award a contract.

“What we’re here to decide is which company provides the best processing and the best service,” he said, adding that IQS was more cost effective. “In other words, we want more bang for our buck.”

Legislator Dan Chalifoux said that the contract award has been discussed many times and that the time had come to make a decision. He called the question to end debate and force a vote.

With legislators Kevin Gardner and Morris Sorbello absent, there were not enough Republicans present to secure the two-thirds majority needed and the call to question failed.

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The Truth About Karl Rove's "New Majority Agenda"

Amy Tressider Supports Minimum Wage Increase...

Longtime resident of Oswego County. Tresidder understands North Country living. As the November 6th Election Day approaches it's clear that NY Senate District 48 faces two distinct choices. Senator Ritchie offers a continuation of cuts to municipal services and education- at all levels. Those cuts are only made worse when she fails to understand the hardships middle class families face as she opposes an increase to the minimum wage and the power of home rule.

 

Tresidder believes an increase to minimum wage in NY is important. Recent studies on the economics of Oswego County show that the fastest-growing employment opportunity for the Oswego area is in the service industry. Tresidder knows the difficulty faced by those earning the minimum wage to afford housing, clothing, food, heating and transportation. At an average of $3.69 per gallon, the cost to fill a 15-gallon gas tank is $55.35. A minimum-wage employee, based on an eight-hour workday, would earn $58 per day, leaving a mere $2.65 for other expenses. Tresidder knows that while statistics do not tell a personal story, your friends and neighbors do, and she’s dedicated to listening with an open mind and heart to the concerns of the residents living in the 48th Senate District.

 

As a member of the Oswego County Legislature, Tresidder works hard to protect the interests of the residents. She consistently votes against spending that she believes is unnecessary or not proven to be cost-effective. She has worked hard to reduce the size of the county legislature and has shown that her priorities are solidly with her constituency.

If elected to the senate, Tresidder will continue to work for the citizens of the 48th District and will address their needs and concerns with the same devotion she has given to the residents of Oswego County.

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Ryan Budget Recipe

Romney-Ryan Economic Plans Would Increase Unemployment, Deepen Recession

Much has been written in recent days about Paul Ryan’s plans to privatize Medicare, dismantle Social Security, massively cut taxes for the wealthy and drastically redistribute income from the bottom to the top.

Yet perhaps the most disturbing feature of Ryan’s budget is that, in the midst of a prolonged recession, it would cost the US economy millions of jobs. Ryan’s 2011 budget plan proposes what the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities calls “the most severe and wrenching budget cuts in US history—two-thirds of which would come from programs for people of low or moderate incomes” (Medicaid, Pell grants, food stamps and low-income housing). According to the Economic Policy Institute, “the shock to aggregate demand from near-term spending cuts would result in roughly 1.3 million jobs lost in 2013 and 2.8 million jobs lost in 2014, or 4.1 million jobs through 2014.”

Heather Boushey of the Center for American Progress calls Ryan’s budget “austerity on steroids,” while Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute dubs it “bizarro stimulus.” Explains Konczal: “These are arguments that doing things traditionally thought of as the opposite of economic stimulus will be the real stimulus and help bring unemployment down.” (Ryan’s also a fierce critic of actions taken by the Federal Reserve to reduce unemployment.)

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Romney Demanded ‘Several’ Years Of Tax Returns From Potential VP Candidates |

Former Minnesota governor and Mitt Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty was caught off guard when asked how many years of tax returns he had to turn over to the Republican campaign as part of the vice presidential vetting process, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “Several,” Pawlenty said, careful not to reinvigorate the issue or contradict Romney’s resistance to release more than two years of returns. A top aide to Romney has admitted that the campaign received “several years” of income tax returns “from potential running mates.” Watch it:

Six Things to Know About Ryan (and Romney)

1. Ryan really believes in ending Medicare as we know it. The essential promise of Medicare, ever since its establishment in 1965, is that every senior citizen is entitled to a comprehensive set of medical benefits that will protect him or her from financial ruin. The government provides these benefits directly, through a public insurance program, although seniors have the right to enroll in comparable private plans if they choose. But the key is that guarantee of benefits, and it’s what Ryan would take away. He would replace it with a voucher, whose value would rise at a pre-determined formula unlikely to keep up with actual medical expenses.

Ryan's early proposals had no safeguards to make sure the voucher was adequate. His most recent one has safeguards, a more reasonable spending line, and preserves the government-run plan as an option. But the safeguards are weak, at best, and the government-run program would struggle to survive. Over time, more and more seniors would find the voucher too small to buy the insurance they need.

In addition, Ryan would raise the eligibility age of Medicare from 65 to 67. Without the Affordable Care Act, which Ryan would repeal, many if not most 65- and 66-year-olds without employer insurance would end up uninsured. And that's not an age at which you want to be skipping doctor visits.

The long-term effect would of the latest Ryan Medicare proposal wouldn't be a severe as the long-term effect of the original. But it'd be a difference in magnitude, not a difference in kind. Seniors would not get the same protection they do now, forcing more of them to choose between health care and other essential needs—the very same situation they routinely faced until the 1960s, when dismay over the hardship seniors faced created the political groundswell for Medicare.


2. Ryan really believes in ending Medicaid as we know it. Like Medicare, Medicaid is effectively a guarantee: It’s a promise to the states that, as long as they offer Medicaid and contribute their share, the federal government will enough money to cover everybody who is eligible for the program, no matter how many people it is. It’s also a promise to individual Medicaid recipients, that the insurance they receive will be sufficiently comprehensive to cover any service they might need—plus some extra services, such as lead screening for children, that are particularly critical for low-income Americans.
Ryan would end both guarantees, by turning Medicaid into a “block grant.” Every year, the federal government would cut checks for the states, according to a pre-determined formula. The formula envisions massive cuts to the program; it’s one of the major places Ryan looks to reduce federal spending. Given those levels, states would be forced to reduce, dramatically, whom they cover and/or what they cover.

According to estimates commissioned by the Kaiser Foundation and made by researchers at the Urban Institute, the end result would that between 14 and 27 million low-income Americans lose health insurance. That’s above and beyond those who are supposed to get insurance from the Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014, but would not because Ryan wants to repeal the law’s coverage expansion.

Oh, one other thing. People forget that the majority of Medicaid spending isn't on the proverbial single mother living at the poverty line. It's on the elderly and disabled. One way or another, such severe cuts to Medicaid will impact their services, making it (more) difficult for them to pay for nursing homes and long-term care.


3. Ryan really pushed for privatization of Social Security. From Ryan Lizza’s profile of Ryan in the New Yorker:

Ryan and other conservative leaders, among them Senator John Sununu, of New Hampshire, wanted to be sure that Bush returned to [privatization] in 2005. Under Ryan’s initial version, American workers would be able to invest about half of their payroll taxes, which fund Social Security, in private accounts. As a plan to reduce government debt, it made no sense. It simply took money from one part of the budget and spent it on private accounts, at a cost of two trillion dollars in transition expenses. But, as an ideological statement about the proper relationship between individuals and the federal government, Ryan’s plan was clear.

The release of the Social Security proposal was a turning point in Ryan’s career. Bush could have chosen to push a bipartisan idea, such as immigration reform, as the first domestic proposal of his second term. But, during the 2004 campaign, Ryan, with such allies as Kemp and Ferrara, kept up pressure from the right to force the White House to make a decision on Social Security. Many Republicans were still wary. Two weeks after Bush’s Inauguration, Ryan gave a speech at Cato asserting that Social Security was no longer the third rail of American politics. He toured his district with a PowerPoint presentation and invited news crews to document how Republicans could challenge Democrats on a sacrosanct policy issue and live to tell about it.

Conservative editorialists and activists cheered him on. “What Ryan and Sununu have proposed is historic,” Newt Gingrich wrote in an op-ed piece. “They have fashioned a plan that makes the idea of a personal-account option for Social Security not only politically viable but, indeed, politically irresistible.” Jack Kemp lauded his former aide: “It will be proven the most efficacious of all the reforms.”

By the way, the plan was so radical that Bush eventually rejected it for a more cautious version.

4. Ryan really would decimate government funding, to the point it could no longer carry on many routine operations. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Ryan’s most recent budget would, by 2050, shrink spending in everything but the big entitlements (Social Security and government health insurance programs) and interest on the debt to less than 4 percent of gross domestic product. To give you a sense of scale, spending outside those entitlements and interest now represents more than 12 percent of GDP and has never, since World War II, represented 8 percent. What would this mean in practical terms? Massive, debilitating cuts to everything from law enforcement to education to highways to food inspections. (Ryan has said he wants to increase defense spending, which would mean steeper cuts to everything else.)


5. Ryan really does want the biggest transfer of wealth, from poor and middle class to rich, in modern U.S. history. Forgive the long direct quote, but this statement from Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is something that every single reporter covering the campaign should read—and that every American planning to vote should understand:

The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history). …

Specifically, the Ryan budget would impose extraordinary cuts in programs that serve as a lifeline for our nation’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens, and over time would cause tens of millions of Americans to lose their health insurance or become underinsured. It would also impose severe cuts in non-defense discretionary programs—much deeper than the across-the-board cuts ("sequestration") that are scheduled to take place starting in January — thereby putting core government functions at still greater risk. Indeed, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis that Chairman Ryan himself requested shows that, after several decades, the Ryan budget would shrink the federal government so dramatically that most of what it does outside of Social Security, health care, and defense would essentially disappear.

Yet alongside these extraordinary budget cuts, with their dismantling of key parts of the safety net, the budget features stunning new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. These tax cuts would come on top of the average tax cut of more than $125,000 a year that the Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimates that people who make over $1 million a year will receive if — as the Ryan budget also proposes —policymakers make all of President Bush’s tax cuts permanent.

Ryan believes all of these things. Romney does too. Is this the future a majority of American voters want? Over the next few months, we’ll find out.
 

6. Ryan really holds an extreme position on abortion rights, even relative to other conservatives. I didn't grasp this until I learned, via twitter, that he’d co-sponsored a bill declaring that life begins at fertilization and defining fertilization as “the process of a human spermatozoan penetrating the cell membrane of a human oocyte to create a human zygote, a one-celled human embryo, which is a new unique human being.”

Just in case your sense of reproductive biology is a little fuzzy, let me explain why that’s so significant. This is the earliest possible point at which you could define life, unless you want to go all Dr. Strangelove. As far as I know, it would effectively prohibit intrauterine devices (IUD) and some oral contraceptives, since those forms of birth control can stop pregnancy by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. It would also ban in vitro fertilization.

Of course, fertilized eggs fail to implant all the time. That is how nature works. And that is one reason why even the ultra-conservative, rabidly anti-abortion voters of Mississippi rejected a similar proposal.
Was Ryan's sponsorship of this measure an aberration? Hardly. Michelle Goldberg, writing in the Daily Beast, explains:

…on abortion and women’s health care, there isn’t much daylight between Ryan and, say, Michele Bachmann. Any Republican vice presidential candidate is going to be broadly anti-abortion, but Ryan goes much further. He believes ending a pregnancy should be illegal even when it results from rape or incest, or endangers a woman’s health. He was a cosponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, a federal bill defining fertilized eggs as human beings, which, if passed, would criminalize some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization. The National Right to Life Committee has scored his voting record 100 percent every year since he entered the House in 1999. “I’m as pro-life as a person gets,” he told the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack in 2010. “You’re not going to have a truce.” …

This disregard for the exigencies of women’s lives … was thrown into high relief during his 1998 run for congress against Democrat Lydia Spottswood. Both candidates backed a ban on so-called “partial-birth abortion,” but Spottswood believed there should be exceptions in cases where a woman’s life or health is endangered. “Ryan said he opposes abortion, period,” reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He said any exceptions to a ‘partial-birth’ abortion ban would make that ban meaningless.”

During that campaign, Ryan also expressed his willingness to let states criminally prosecute women who have abortions. According to another Journal Sentinel article, he “would let states decide what criminal penalties would be attached to abortions. Ryan said he’s never specifically advocated jailing women who have abortions or doctors who perform them, but added, ‘If it’s illegal, it’s illegal.’ ”

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Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Back to the Failed Top-Down Policies

Pre-meeting e-mail irks Democrats..Was it Legal ?

An e-mail, sent to Republican members of the Oswego County Legislature on the eve of a controversial vote has stirred the ire of the Democrat’s.

As the legislature was considering the award of a contract to Info Quick Solutions, Inc. of Liverpool to provide data imaging services to the office of the County Clerk, GOP legislator’s received a message from Legislature Clerk Wendy Falls on Wednesday.

“If anyone has any critical concerns in regard to the IQS resolution that will be presented to the legislature tomorrow please contact Majority Leader John Proud… or Majority Whip Linda Lockwood… .” The telephone numbers were included in the message.

When asked if the message was intended to poll legislators, Lockwood said “Not really, we’re just getting the feel of the crowd,” she said. When asked if that wasn’t essentially polling, Lockwood said no one was telling the legislators how to vote.

Legislator Doug Malone said in his opinion, the message sounded like polling, something that is not legal under state law.

“If they have critical questions why wouldn’t they be answered by the county attorney or county administrator,” he said. County Administrator Phil Church handled the RFP process autonomously.

Legislators had no involvement, and purchasing director Fred Maxon had limited involvement.
As for the message coming from Falls, Malone said, “She works for all of us and we are just as equal as they (Republicans) are.”

Malone added that he does not understand the hard push by the GOP to award the contract to IQS, the company that submitted among the highest cost and had the lowest review score.

“They are doing more to give this contract to IQS than they did to get rid of Don Morey,” he said. Morey was the previous county highway superintendent who was publicly terminated in 2006 despite large public support.  POST

Senator Patty Ritchie ranks in the top of spending in the New York Senate

New York State Senator Patty Ritchie ranks 26th in spending, according to the most recent senate expenditure report covering the time period April 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2011.
Ritchie’s expenses totaled $322,211, according to her expense report, with Senator Roy McDonald taking the 25th spot with total expenses of $322,403.

There are 62 state senators, with each entitled to a generous expense account.

Ritchie’s member travel expenses for the six month period include payments for May, June and July 2011 in the amounts of $1,375.60, $1,637.20, $1,540.80, $326.20, $648.60, $813.60, $487.40, $648.60, $933.60 and $937.40 for a total of $9,349.

The freshman lawmaker had 17 employees, who in a six month period earned a total of $255,374. The staff salary expenses include Graham Wise, Chief of Staff, who earned $30,575; Stephanie Andrews, legislative aide/constituent special, who earned $7,668.50; Holly Carpenter, Director of Community Relations for the Oswego office earned $21,198.76; Jennifer Dindl-Neff who serves as special projects coordinator, earned $6,727.00; Diane M. Doyle, office manager/constituent representative, earned $14,312.47; Bonnie J. Fikes, legislative aide, earned $7,112; Patricia Holst, constituent liaison, earned $7,112.00; Theodore Kusnierz, director of agriculture committee, who earned $29,134.70; Patricia McMurray, executive assistant, who earned $20,446.16 and Sheila O’Sullivan, counsel, who earned $20,446.16.

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NY STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE NAMES RODNEY CAPEL AS NEXT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The New York State Democratic Committee today announced that Rodney Capel will become its next Executive Director when Charlie King returns to the private sector in September. He has started at the State Party and is working with Mr. King on the transition.

Mr. Capel has been working as the New York City Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for Governor Cuomo since April 2011. Previously, Mr. Capel was Senior Vice President of Mercury LLC and Deputy Chief of Staff for New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. From 1999 to 2001, Capel was the Deputy State Director for Senator Charles Schumer. He was New York State Director for the Kerry/Edwards Presidential campaign in 2004 as well as for the Gore/Lieberman Presidential campaign in 2000.

“The New York State Democratic committee is going to be a leading engine of support to get Barack Obama reelected in the fall," Governor Cuomo said. "New York State has been restored as a progressive leader for the nation and a key part of that will be standing squarely behind the president's reelection campaign. I want to thank Charlie for his dedicated service to the party and look forward to working with Rodney, Keith and Stephanie going in to the fall.”

Syracuse Mayor and State Democratic Committee Co-Chair Stephanie Miner said: “Rodney is an exceptional political strategist with the trust and confidence of countless elected officials and Democratic candidates. He will be invaluable in helping lead this party to success in November.”

Assemblyman and State Democratic Committee Co-Chair Keith Wright said: “Rodney’s experience in New York politics is matched only by his passion and energy for the Democratic Party, making him the perfect choice to be our next Executive Director. I have worked with Rodney for many years and have the utmost confidence in his ability to deliver victories for the New York State Democratic Party this cycle and into the future."

Mr. Capel will succeed Mr. King, who announced earlier this year that he would be leaving after overseeing the Party during Governor Cuomo's successful 2010 campaign. “I have been proud to work alongside Rodney on various projects for over a decade and I know he will be indispensable
in helping to lead this party to victory in the fall,” said King. “He is a tireless worker whose firsthand knowledge of Democratic policies and politics will be essential in supporting President Obama and the party’s candidates throughout the state.”

"Charlie has been a role model and leader for Democrats in New York and is leaving me some big shoes to fill," Mr. Capel said. "We have some incredible challenges ahead of us and I am excited to be a part of the upcoming campaign to make sure the progress we have made in New York continues. Electing Democrats from President Obama down the rest of the ballot is the best way to make sure our success continues unabated."

Mr. Capel serves on numerous civic organizations and boards including the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem where he is Vice Chair, Joppa Lodge #55, PHA Affiliated, and the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NAACP.

The New Tax Calculator: President Obama's Plan vs. Mitt Romney's

Tresidder scores victory over Ritchie

The Central Trades and Labor Council didn't endorse a candidate last night in the race between state Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, and Oswego County Legislator Amy Tresidder.

Ron McDougall, the president of the conglomeration of 24,000 AFL-CIO workers in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, said that neither candidate reached the two-thirds threshold required for an endorsement.

Mr. McDougall said the meeting was a lengthy one, lasting from 6 p.m. until past 10. The new pension tier, which Mrs. Ritchie voted in favor of, and a hike in the minimum wage, which she does not support, were among the topics of discussion, he said.

Mrs. Tresidder said that she favors increasing the minimum wage.

(It should be noted usually the endorsement goes to the republican.  With a no endorsement clearly is a victory for the democratic candidate.)

TRESIDDER for State Senate launches Web Site

 TRESIDDER for State Senate

"Stretch" - Obama for America TV Ad

Minority leader: ‘Taxpayers lose’ with clerk contract

When the Oswego County Legislature meets Aug. 9, the Republican majority is expected to pass a contract for data imaging services that will be more costly to taxpayers.

“It’s a joke,” Minority Leader Mike Kunzwiler said.

He and the other four members of the Democrat caucus will not support the recommended vendor, Kunzwiler noted.

In what some legislators said is expected to be a controversial meeting, it is expected the contract will be approved despite opposition.

Last week, Republican members of the legislature’s Community and Consumer Affairs Committee voted to recommend Info Quick Solutions, Inc. (IQS) of Liverpool receive the contract, based on a recommendation from County Clerk George Williams.

A panel was named to perform a blind review of the proposals and rate each one using a scoring system.
IQS was given the lowest score of the five companies vying for the contract.

IQS was given an overall score of 457.25 while Property Info Corp. had the highest score at 649 followed by ACS Systems with a score of 618.25. IMR received a score of 561.25 and New Vision was scored at 516.25.

Each vendor was given four pricing options. Option four, which would require county-owned hardware, had IQS with the second highest pricing. IQS submitted a proposal for $13,543.  Post

Legislators irked over ‘gag order’

Some Oswego County Legislators are angered over an e-mail message they received from County Administrator Phil Church in regard to the pending award of a contract for data imaging services for the office of the County Clerk.

During the July 25 meeting of the legislature’s Community and Consumer Affairs Committee, legislators voted to award the contract to Info Quick Solutions, Inc. of Liverpool — despite the company being one of the most costly and having the lowest score given by a panel appointed to review the five bidding vendors.

The committee first received the vendor information blindly with letters replacing company names. Prior to the names being revealed to legislators, County Clerk George Williams said he wanted IQS to receive the contract. He praised the service of IQS and referred to them as “our company.”


When asked who he recommended, Williams responded, “I’ll recommend IQS.”

Legislator Amy Tresidder asked if Williams violated the communication clause, which restricted speaking about the companies. The response was that he had not violated the clause.

The following day, legislators received communication from Church stating, “Yesterday the Community and Consumer Affairs Committee made a recommendation to the County Legislature regarding awarding the text and image management contract. The full County Legislature is scheduled to take up the matter August 9 and make a final decision.”

It continues, “In the meantime, the communications and contact rules of the RFP regarding contacts between legislators, officials, employees vendors, and the press remain in effect until an award is made by the Legislature.”

Some legislators became irritated by the message, questioning how they were to speak to their constituents about the contract award and questioning why, if the matter was discussed at a public meeting, the “gag order” was necessary.

“Is this some kind of joke?” Legislator Doug Malone responded to Church.

Minority Leader Mike Kunzwiler and legislators Amy Tresidder Dan Farfaglia responded to Church as did at least one Republican legislator, all questioning Church’s message.

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Dan Maffei Editorial Board Interview Excerpts