The LuLac Edition #2159, August 14th, 2012

Marino’s Health Care Flyers (Click to enlarge).

MARINO AND HEALTH CARE 

Check out this mailer that some residents in the 10th recently got from Tom Marino. It's all about how Obamacare is going to take down the country. It was mailed through his official congressional franking account. In talking with some former congressional colleagues, the flyer is blatantly political, which would be a violation of federal franking rules. But that’s not the most galling thing. Here's a guy who goes out-of-state to get life-saving surgery, subsidized by the taxpayers, (how would you like to have his health care plan????) and then comes home to deny the same degree of care to thousands of his own constituents with his fierce opposition to Obamacare, particularly seniors, women, and children. There are some who have seen this and called Marino some very unkind names. I won’t do that. I’ll just refer to him as what he is, a typical turn of the century right wing Republican who doesn’t give a flying crap about seniors, women and children. It’s the “I got yours, I don’t care if you don’t have yours” mentality of this new generation of Republicans. Oh and by the way, didn’t the last three Congressmen in this district, Carney, Sherwood and McDade have town meetings and face to faces with their district? Come out, come out Congressman. 

RYAN UNDERSTOOD 

In picking Paul Ryan., Mitt Romney picked the mirror image of himself. Granted Ryan does not have Romney’s millions but he came from an established family who had a construction company in Wisconsin. Good for them, they worked hard at it but as the President and Elizabeth Warren pointed out, they didn’t do it themselves. Ryan was elected at age 28 and also owns a ranch in Texas. Again, no problem with that. People could have what they want but let’s not mistake Paul Ryan as the guy next door with the struggling concerns that other middle class people are coping with. And if your friends find the Ryan pick intriguing, consider what Ryan is all about. 
From the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza: Here are 5 things you should know about Romney's new running mate: 
The Ryan budget, "The Path to Prosperity," would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program, slash food stamps for struggling Americans, and turn Medicaid over to the states. Virtually the entire GOP, including Romney, have signed onto the plan as a centerpiece of the party's legislative agenda. 
Ryan's plan also would further tilt the tax system toward the rich. He'd extend the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2 percent, but not President Obama’s cuts for those who earn the least. 
Ryan also supports privatizing Social Security and turning it over to Wall Street. Had the plan been in effect during the 2008 financial crisis, millions of seniors' benefits would likely have been decimated. 
The economy suffers from a lack of demand, and by slashing spending, Ryan's plan would worsen the problem. It would result in over 4 million lost jobs over the next 2 years, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute. 
Though he has tried to deny her influence recently, Ryan has claimed to be a devotee of the radical libertarian writer Ayn Rand. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he once said at a Washington event in Rand's honor. “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.” Rand's philosophy centers on the notion that selfishness in the pursuit of profit is a virtue and that altruism is "evil," as she put it.