The crowd of senior citizens at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) conference wasn’t buying what Paul Ryan was selling today.
He was selling the same old malarkey, and they roundly booed him for it.
They booed him when he said that “the first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare.” (Ryan was using Orwellian speech because he doesn’t want a stronger Medicare; he wants to destroy and privatize Medicare.)
They booed him when he criticized the President for cutting $716 billion from Medicare, though Ryan refused to acknowledge that these cuts don’t come out of the hides of any Medicare recipients. Nor did he acknowledge that he himself relied on the same cuts in his own budget numbers.
They booed him when he said the President “put his own job security over your retirement security.” Obama has done nothing to imperil the retirement security of the elderly; in fact, he is closing the donut hole on prescription drug costs, which will increase their security and the money in their pockets. Ryan got what he asked for when he ladled out this slop at the AARP. But he smugly went on, after the boos, as if he’s got all the answers and those old folks are just out of it. Those boos, though, may be ringing in his ears by about 8:30 p.m. on November 6.
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story “Ann Romney, Paul Ryan Spin Themselves Dizzy in Defending Romney."
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