Since Romney bought into Ryan, all I can say is hey, buddy, you own his budget, too.
According to Think Progress, Romney has supported Ryan's budget five separate times.
And since that is the case, I have decided to have the discussion every single day with someone to educate them about what is involved. My idea is to tailor the message to the person and what I know about them.
Saturday, it was the young family next door with a seven year-old daughter as we cooked food for a local fund raiser.
Sunday it was a girl at work (single, about 30). Sunday night it was the grandma/daughter of the Saturday batch.
Monday it was the manager at work.
Today it was the bank teller. Thankfully, there was no one waiting so I had a little time to spend above the four or so minutes the transaction would take.
Over the scrambled orange safety net for more.
The Teller at the bank is a young man, single, in college and working full time. I entered into the conversation after he asked if I was planning on investing the money I was taking out. (No, it's to pay off a large bill, which I told him.) He remarked he wished the economy was better. I took it from there beginning with the $1 Trillion for an unnecessary war that was never budgeted for by Bush (neither of which he knew) and I explained that while the republicans like to point to this deficit and claim Obama raised it--oh noes!--the rate of increase was the smallest in decades. And given Obama put Bush's war back into the budget, that is where the lion's share of the increases they fret about come from. I shook my head and said, "All those lives lost. All that money gone and for absolutely nothing."
He replied, "No kidding."
I then ticked off a plethora of data about 2008, why it happened, WHO caused it and how it's changed and why and finished with, "Thank God we had Obama in there or it would have been much worse, the pain much deeper and for much longer. We have a ways to go, but we will get there."
Then I struck.
"Boy," I said, "I couldn't believe he was crazy enough to pick Paul Ryan for vice president given the draconian budget he just inherited. My God, do you know that with Ryan's plan in 2030, before YOU even retire, that retirees will be paying 68% of their medical costs? Yep, that's what the CBO said. I was shocked. Can you imaging picking up 68% of medical costs when you are retired given that hardly ANYONE could pay that even when they work full time and have health insurance? And these are older people with a much, much higher likelihood of more severe health issues than someone like you or I."
He replied, "There's no way I could do that. I can barely make it now." (I am guessing he is about 21.)
I replied, "Yeah, now imagine your Pell Grants gone. Like you need that kind of so-called help!"
But, I continued, adding a disgusted chuckle, that's the help Romney would give you. Your Pell Grant and those of the students around you are history if he is elected. Romney, with millions of dollars, advised people like you to borrow from your parents. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
I said I feel so badly about what your future holds for you given they don't care about climate change. They don't care about education, yours included. They don't care about social security or medicare or medicaid. They don't care about children. Your generation and the ones before and after are so screwed if they get into office.
Like you, I worked my way through eight years of college. It was really hard then. I couldn't make it work now. But I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Your tuition is higher. Your books are more expensive. Your pay is lower. Jobs are harder to find. And now this. I don't know how you do it. I admire you. And I am going to the mat for you and the little girl next door who is seven. They are not going to do this because we aren't going to elect a bunch of guys that don't give a damn about your future or hers.
I looked him straight in the eye and said, "If you don't vote the right way this time--against Romney--your future is gone. I'm going to volunteer for Obama's campaign to help make sure that doesn't happen. Your job is to vote the right way and get your fellow students to do the same. If we don't both work hard in our own ways, we lose everything. Everything. And your parents lose, too."
He smiled and said a professor of his had talked about the budget and medicare and said that he thought they were trying to balance everything by taking away what we have so they can have more.
Heh. He's got the right idea.
Who knows who I will talk to tomorrow. But talk I will. And I won't stop until the polls close on November sixth.
We can do this.