The Associate Press also
took exception to Ryan's speech,
WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts during the Republican convention when he attacked President Barack Obama's policies on Medicare, the economic stimulus and the budget deficit.
A closer look at some of Ryan's remarks Wednesday at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.:
RYAN: "And the biggest, coldest
power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. ...
So they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama."
THE FACTS: Ryan's claim ignores the fact that Ryan himself incorporated the
same cuts into budgets he steered through the House in the past two
years as chairman of its Budget Committee, using the money for deficit
reduction. And the cuts do not affect Medicare recipients directly, but
rather reduce payments to hospitals, health insurance plans and other
service providers.
In addition, Ryan's own plan to remake Medicare would squeeze the program's spending even more than the changes Obama
made, shifting future retirees into a system in which they would get a
fixed payment to shop for coverage among private insurance plans.
Critics charge that would expose the elderly to more out-of-pocket
costs.
___
RYAN:
"The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and
cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country,
were cut out of the deal."
THE FACTS: Ryan himself asked for
stimulus funds shortly after Congress approved the $800 billion plan,
known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Ryan's pleas to
federal agencies included letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis seeking stimulus grant money for two
Wisconsin energy conservation companies.
One of them, the
nonprofit Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp., received $20.3 million
from the Energy Department to help homes and businesses improve energy
efficiency, according to federal records. That company, he said in his
letter, would build "sustainable demand for green jobs." Another
eventual recipient, the Energy Center of Wisconsin, received about
$365,000.
___
RYAN:
Said Obama misled people in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis., by
making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure
could be saved. "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."
THE FACTS: The plant halted production in December 2008, weeks before Obama
took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry
bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their
plants — though not the Janesville facility — to stay in operation. Ryan
himself voted for an auto bailout under President George W. Bush that
was designed to help GM, but he was a vocal critic of the one pushed
through by Obama that has been widely credited with revitalizing both GM and Chrysler.
___
RYAN: Obama
"created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent
report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly
nothing."
THE FACTS: It's true that Obama
hasn't heeded his commission's recommendations, but Ryan's not the best
one to complain. He was a member of the commission and voted against
its final report.
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