why paul ryan is a big dumb fat liar
• Ryan claimed that President Obama threatens Medicare because the Affordable Care Act reduces the cost of Medicare costs by $716 billion over 10 years. The truth is that those savings come primarily from slowing the rate of growth in payments hospitals and doctors and do not take away any benefits from seniors, unlike Ryan’s plan to end Medicare by turning it into a voucher program in which seniors rather than the government will bear increasing health care costs. Moreover, Ryan’s own Medicare plan contains the same $700 billion in costs savings. It just goes to show that a good defense is a good offense with the man who wants to end Medicare as we know it claiming it’s President Obama who wants to cut Medicare.
• Ryan accused President Obama of “adding more debt than any other President before him.” The truth is that the biggest driver of the debt have been the Bush tax cuts, the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Republican-backed Medicare drug program which wasn’t paid for, all of which Paul Ryan voted for.
• Ryan blamed Obama for the shutting down of a GM plant in Ryan’s home district in Janesville, Wisconsin. The fact is that the plant shuttered in 2008 while George Bush was still President. President Obama’s program to keep GM alive saved hundreds of thousands of jobs.
• Ryan gave moving homilies to the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak. The truth is that the Medicaid cuts in Ryan’s budget would deny health care to millions of the poor and prevent millions more middle class families from affording nursing homes.
• Ryan appealed to young people without jobs living in their parent’s homes. Cuts to student loans in Ryan’s budget would deny millions of them the chance to go to college and obtain the skills to get high-paying jobs.
• Ryan blamed President Obama for last summer’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor’s. But S&P itself stated that the downgrade was caused primarily because Congressional Republicans, like Ryan, refuse to consider raising revenues.
Iran protests: hundreds of thousands march, tear gas fired
Clashes between Iranian police and hundreds of thousands of protesters wracked central Tehran on Monday as security forces beat and fired tear gas at opposition supporters hoping to evoke Egypt’s recent popular uprising.
The opposition called for a demonstration Monday in solidarity with Egypt’s popular revolt that a few days earlier forced the president there to resign after nearly 30 years in office. The rally is the first major show of strength for Iran’s cowed opposition in more than a year.
Police used tear gas against the protesters in central Tehran’s Enghelab, or Revolution, square and in Imam Hossein square, as well as in other nearby main streets. Demonstrators responded by setting garbage bins on fire to protect themselves from the stinging white clouds.
Eyewitnesses said at least three protesters injured by bullets were taken to a hospital in central Tehran while dozens of others were hospitalized because of severe wounds as a result of being beaten.
“An Iranian dies but doesn’t accept humiliation,” demonstrators chanted. “Death to the dictator,” they said, in a chant directed at hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Celebrities Who Seem Shocked By Their Own Success
As Chris Colfer walked onto the set of “Live With Kelly and Michael” last week, he gazed around the room with large eyes, appearing awestruck by the size of the audience and the affectionate outpour he was receiving. “Wow,” he said as he sat down, maintaining the soft and earnest smile that’s always plastered across his face. It’s remarkable that his smile has remained so steady, considering how substantially his stature has proliferated over the past three years. The shock on Colfer’s face was palpable when he won the Golden Globe in 2011 for his role on “Glee,” and it hasn’t left him since, even as he’s become a best-selling author, screenwriter, producer and one of TIME’s most influential people. Colfer often speaks of the troubles he experienced in high school, when he was often bullied for being gay. It’s his ability to remain candid and upbeat that makes you want to squeeze him. Just recall this moment from his Golden Globe acceptance-speech thanks as proof: “Most importantly, to all the amazing kids that watch our show and the kids that our show celebrates who are constantly told no by the people in their environments, by bullies at school, that they can’t be who they are or have what they want because of who they are, well, screw that, kids.”
