From CNN:
But Ryan also said Republicans need to continue to explain how their proposal will impact Medicare. "Americans want the truth. They want facts. And so we have a year and half to get the truth out. Our budget's so clear. It doesn't change benefits for people over the age of 55 and it saves Medicare for the next generation."
Paul Ryan was born in 1970. He is 41 years old. His family has run Ryan Incorporated Central since the 1800's and, should he fail in government, I'm certain they will cover his healthcare.
I am 47-years-old. I have at least another 20 years to work, God willing (I have small children who have to go to college). At 47, I can now SEE the end of my career in the future - and I can understand my connection to any changes that could occur in Medicare or Medicaid.
Our biggest problem out there aren't necessarily the politicians on the right, even though they are a huge problem. It is the ignorance of a 25-year-old conservative who has no perception of his or her future retirement and doesn't see how their lives and Medicare intersect.
What Ryan and the other republicans have been doing, in a cynical, callous way, is feeding into the wilfull ignorance of this large voting block and giving them the wrongful idea that they know something about this subject.
If there's anything I hate more than an arrogant, ignorant, far-too-young-to-understand-how-politics-affects-him/her-republican I can't tell you what that would be.
We live in a world where people NEVER learn the lessons of the past. While I never lived through the depression, I had grandparents (now gone) who did and remember their stories about it. I knew that many of these social programs were developed due to dire situations like those where the general public didn't learn the lesson of foresight until it was far too late (we've got a similar situation with global warming).
But today we face a bullying, ignorant, political active conservative party that has absolutely no interest in the past or willingness to consider the concept that they may not know everything. We have a Tea Party that foolishly votes against their own best interest because they are too lazy to want to educate themselves and would rather scream and hate.
It is this type of person, particularly the young ones, who can dismantle programs necessary for us older folks given that their relationship to these issues are, by perception, non-existent. To them, it's just us whining.
So, to hell with Ryan and their pathetic, ugly strategy of trying to keep an important issue in the dark. Hopefully our party can make their case clearly about what's at stake here.