Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Paul Ryan has created a document called “Path to Prosperity” in which he attempts to offer some plan to get America’s economy back on track. In the 99 pages of the document he presents elements of a plan, but it is a scary plan, one that is not good for actual American people.
Under Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” budget proposal, the government would shrink considerably in size. Ryan writes that he intends to “bring [the] size of government to 20 percent of economy by 2015, allowing the private sector to grow and create jobs.”
This idea of shrinking the governing body’s size and power should sound familiar to history buffs. It was done to King John when his subjects slapped him upside the head with that ole Magna Carta. You know, the document that attempted to stop King John’s tyrannous actions by shrinking the size of his power?
Now the difference between the Magna Carta and the “Path to Prosperity” is that one actually gave power back to the people, while the more recent version just gives more power to the Scrooge McDuck’s of the United States.
The problem is that a government is held accountable by its citizens, but private companies are only held accountable by shareholders. So, by decreasing the size of government and allowing the private sector to expand, Paul Ryan’s budget plan effectively takes power away from US citizens and transfers it to a few fat cat shareholders.
The conceit of Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” is the notion that the private sector would put peoples’ needs before corporate profits, which is balderdash by any account.
In fact, most of Ryan’s “plan” is gibberish. Sanity lurches into view here and there, such as on page 44 when he makes a reasonable idea by stating that his plan, “…improves accountability by calling for the consolidation of duplicative federal job-training programs…” But by page 78 Ryan has wandered back off into the murky waters of the classic anti-stimulus package attack.
His anti-stimulus diatribe is reminiscent of the comments Governor John Kasich during his recent speech at the GOP convention when he acted like Ohio recovered from the great recession all by itself, when, in fact, the state received $7,101,280,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act according to recovery.gov.
Governor Kasich is so oblivious to the reality of how the stimulus benefited Ohio that he actually wants to eliminate the Ohio Department of Development and replace it with JobsOhio, which, according to its official website is, “…a private, nonprofit corporation guided by a business-minded governor and a highly accomplished board of directors…Using a private sector approach.” What can you say to that other than “yikes!”?
Before entering that voting booth on November 6, 2012, be aware that Paul Ryan’s plan is not for the people. Privatization of government run programs will leave US citizens voiceless whenever a problem may arise. Only shareholders can vote in the private sector. A vote is a say, without a vote you have no say. Don’t let Paul Ryan’s plan take your voice.
