Town hall anger directed at GOP. The backlash over Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare continues….

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UYGUR: All right. Now, backlash against Republicans is growing. They‘re having to answer for Paul Ryan‘s radical plan to destroy Medicare. Now, Speaker Boehner is backing away from Ryan. Didn‘t take too long to throw him under the bus. And Congressman Ron Paul is going to speak out on that. And he‘s got a very unique take. That‘s coming up next.

UYGUR: Republicans can run but they can‘t hide from Paul Ryan‘s plan. We‘ve seen angry outbursts from voters at town hall meetings in a state after state. Now, some Republicans are resorting to prescreening questions to avoid the wrath of those who don‘t want to privatize Medicare and give more tax breaks to the rich. The Sun Sentinel reports staffers from Florida Republican Alan West tried to block unscripted questions last night, but it didn‘t work out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD BOOS)

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UYGUR: Did you see what happened to that last woman? She was escorted out by security. No, no, no. Democrats are actually concerned citizens don‘t get to ask questions in town halls, that‘s only for Republicans shouting about health care. But something tells me that he‘s not going to put out the fire anyway. Here‘s freshman Republican Dan Webster of Florida, and he‘s duking it out with constituents in Orlando.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN WEBSTER ®, FLORIDA: Not one senior citizen is harmed by this budget.

CROWD: What? You‘re a liar. You‘re a liar. Everyone under 55 is screwed.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: What insurance company is going to insure me?

WEBSTER: I promise you, not only will Medicare not go broke which it will under the present.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I won‘t have it, what does it matter?

WEBSTER: I understand, in nine years, it‘s going to go broke.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Who cares? I don‘t have it.

WEBSTER: You will have it, if this plan‘s adopted. You will.

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UYGUR: And the architect himself, Paul Ryan, the man whose budget plan set off all this anger in the first place, is getting hit yet again with tough questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN ®, WISCONSIN: We‘re taxing our employers, our businesses a lot more than our foreign competitors are taxing theirs. The international average for the corporate tax rate is 25 percent. Ours is 35 percent. Hey, come on, everybody, let‘s—all right. If you‘re yelling, I just want to ask you to leave. If you‘re just going to scream like that, it‘s just not polite to everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UYGUR: He also took extra precautions, left out from a different exit. Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron. And guess what? All of a sudden, we‘ve got republican back pedals. Even House Speaker John Boehner is suddenly walking away from Ryan‘s plan, saying he‘s not wedded to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOEHNER, HOUSE SPEAKER: I voted for it. I‘m for it. I‘m for it. It‘s our idea. It‘s Paul‘s idea. Other people have other ideas. I‘m not wedded to one single idea, but I think it‘s—we have a plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UYGUR: Oh, I love that. Me, did I vote for it? It‘s always Paul‘s idea. It‘s Paul‘s idea. I‘m not wedded to it. But did I vote for it? Did I lead everybody off that cliff? Remember, that‘s the same plan that all but four House Republicans voted for just this month. And now all of a sudden of course, Boehner is not wedded to it. He led everybody off that cliff. Now, they‘re in mid fall and he‘s asking how do we get here? That was Paul‘s idea, right, ahhhh! All right. And you know, what? The Democrats smell blood. You know, what that? That‘s why Harry Reid said today that he‘ll hold a vote in the Senate on Ryan‘s plan forcing Senate Republicans to go on the record.

Now that they‘ve seen the blowback, I wonder whether those Republicans Senators are going to stand on this. It‘s going to be an interesting question. Now, here‘s a guy who doesn‘t often back pedal right or wrong. He‘s known for sticking with his positions, with me now is one of the Republicans who actually voted against Paul Ryan‘s plan, Texas Congressman Ron Paul. But wait, you‘re going to find out why in a second. And this week, Congressman Paul also announced he‘s setting up a presidential exploratory committee. So, Congressman Paul, why did you vote against the Ryan plan?

REP. RON PAUL ®, TEXAS: It didn‘t cut anything. I mean, this noise that I just heard, it‘s just a representation of the bankruptcy of the country, and to blame Republicans is wrong. I think you have to blame both parties. You know, both parties have driven this country into bankruptcy. And just the noise and the screaming that you just released there is an indication of what‘s coming to our streets, because we won‘t admit what bankruptcy is. Sure, I‘m concerned about people losing their medical care and all these problems. But believe me, the further bankruptcy of this country is going to be everybody, the whole system is going to collapse. And that‘s what a dollar crisis is all about.

So beware, this is only the beginning. And to say that one side is more guilty, both sides have been spending too much. The Democrats spent all this money on the welfare programs and the Republicans spent all this money on warfare. It was totally bankrupt. The dollar is crashing, this inflation. And believe me, this is only the beginning. But if you don‘t understand why, you‘re in trouble, we‘re in trouble and you‘re not helping us to figure it out because there is an explanation to this.

(CROSSTALK)

The middle class gets wiped out when you destroy the dollar and that‘s what you‘re seeing here.

UYGUR: Right. I hear you. I hear you.

PAUL: It‘s getting wiped out and the corporations are ripping you off but you‘re misleading the people by saying.

UYGUR: No, no, no, hold on, hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: Somebody is trying to cut.

UYGUR: No, look, the dollar is an interesting question. And, you know, your views on the Fed are very interesting. You got something really great done in auditing the Fed. You work with Alan Grayson. And I‘m giving you credit for that over and over. But look, that was not the issue here. You said people are angry about bankruptcy. No, those people were very specifically angry about the possibility of their Medicare being cut. And when you look at the national polls.

PAUL: Well.

UYGUR: No, hold on now. When you look at the national polls, people are very striding on this. You‘ve got 76 percent saying that Medicare cuts our unacceptable. You‘ve got 67 percent saying Medicaid unacceptable to cut. Social security, 77 percent to cut. I mean, doesn‘t that show you that people are justifiably angry about this and they don‘t want to cut?

PAUL: Oh, yes, they are. But they have to understand why. And I think you‘re misleading them. I‘m concerned too, but it‘s going to get worse if we don‘t understand this. Now, I—my own personal opinion is that most of this stuff is all unconstitutional, but that‘s not going to come about because we don‘t live in that age. But if we made common sense all this, yes, I would cut all this militarism and not cut people off for medical care.

But what‘s happening now is since there will not be a consensus, there‘s an agreement in Washington, you vote for welfare, we vote for military. And it continues and we keep printing this money. But the problem isn‘t somebody getting something cut short on Medicare, it‘s the ending of it, it‘s the ending of the program. You have to understand when the dollar goes, there‘s nothing left. There‘s runaway inflation. And now, this was the whole thing about the Bernanke hearings today. He admitted, you know, that there‘s inflation coming and its here. And there‘s not a lot he can do about it except print more money and the dollar was further devalued.

UYGUR: But Congressman, look.

PAUL: And that‘s the key issue.

UYGUR: I have massive issues with Ben Bernanke. I have massive issue with Tim Geithner, who are republican leftovers for him, that the Obama administration which is the democratic administration has taken on for reasons that no one can really found them. So, I agree with your points on that. But you‘re running for president, and you just said Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security are all unconstitutional. So, if you become president, would you phase those programs out?

PAUL: Well, you have to start where you are. I think it‘s all going to end, it‘s not going to end because of me or anybody else, it‘s going but because of the bankruptcy. But I have an idea of what we can do. I would cut massively on this overseas spending, hundreds of billions of dollars and work our way out of it. But no, you can do this. I mean, when I go to the college campuses and I get large crowds out, I say, do you think you‘re going to get anything out of Medicare and Social Security? They say no. I said, I‘m going to let you out. Just get out of the program, opt out. Restore your freedom, demand your right to take care of yourself and then take care of the elderly who are dependent, don‘t put them out on the streets, and then you could do that, and you could work a transition but…

(CROSSTALK)

UYGUR: So, I just want to get clarity. Transition. So, if you became president, you would transition completely out of Social Security and Medicare?

PAUL: Well, you know, if I can get the people to agree and the Congress to agree, yes, that would be my program to transition out because this one has failed and you‘re going to have riots in the streets, the food riots will come. They‘re all around the world because this is a worldwide phenomenon. That‘s why the governments are breaking down around the world, because prices are going up. Because we have the reserve currency. Everything is based on the dollar. Other countries are already suffering, and it will come here. So you have to make a choice. You want to continue this and argue over where the cuts are coming or are we going to get together and make some cuts?

I‘m just suggesting that the most popular way, political way, even though most Republicans disagree with me, is I would cut the military and the overseas spending and quit pretending we can run the world because we can‘t.

UYGUR: Right.

PAUL: And then we could have a transition and the young people know this. This is why I get support from the young people. They‘re willing to take care of themselves and we don‘t have to throw anybody out in the streets and we don‘t have to get rid of Medicare. But Medicare will be destroyed if the two sides don‘t get together and say, we‘ve got to get our house in order. You just can‘t spend your way out and borrow the money and print the money.

UYGUR: Right.

PAUL: That is total destruction to the whole system.

UYGUR: Right. Congressman Ron Paul, I agree with you on militarism, as well. That‘s why you‘re a very interesting person to have in the House of Representatives. Thank you for your time this evening. We really appreciate it.

PAUL: OK.

About William Brighenti

William Brighenti is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and Certified Business Valuation Analyst. Bill began his career in public accounting in 1979. Since then he has worked at various public accounting firms throughout Connecticut. Bill received a Master of Science in Professional Accounting degree from the University of Hartford, after attending the University of Connecticut and Central Connecticut State University for his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. He subsequently attended Purdue University for doctoral studies in Accounting and Quantitative Methods in Business. Bill has instructed graduate and undergraduate courses in Accounting, Auditing, and other subjects at the University of Hartford, Central Connecticut State University, Hartford State Technical College, and Purdue University. He also taught GMAT and CPA Exam Review Classes at the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center and at Person-Wolinsky, and is certified to teach trade-related subjects at Connecticut Vocational Technical Schools. His articles on tax and accounting have been published in several professional journals throughout the country as well as on several accounting websites. William was born and raised in New Britain, Connecticut, and served on the City's Board of Finance and Taxation as well as its City Plan Commission. In addition to the blog, Accounting and Taxes Simplified, Bill writes a blog, "The Barefoot Accountant", for the Accounting Web, a Sift Media publication.
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2 Responses to Town hall anger directed at GOP. The backlash over Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare continues….

  1. Victor says:

    Ron Paul and all the Republicans who say so are wrong on whether Social Security is Unconstitutional or not, This was decided back in 1937 as I’ve quoted below!

    Constitutionality of Social Security Act

    The constitutionality of the Social Security Act was settled in a set of Supreme Court decisions issued in May 1937. The text of those decisions, with dissents, is presented here. (We also include a brief historical essay to help general readers better understand the context of the decisions.)

    1937 Supreme Court Opinions

    * The full text of Justice Cardozo’s opinion in Helvering vs. Davis.
    * The full text of Justice Cardozo’s opinion in Steward Machine Co. vs. Davis, plus dissents.
    * The full text of Justice Stone’s opinion in Carmichael vs. Southern Coal & Coke and Gulf States Paper, plus dissent.

    • Thank you, Victor, for providing that information. The Constitution as originally written was a very good document, but not a perfect document. Only landowners could vote; women could not; slavery was legal; etc.

      And our laws of the land evolved much over time through court cases.

      So I am amused when these Republicans find an esoteric passage in the Constitution, stretch it to the nth degree of infinity in interpretation, and use it to support a specious argument, much like some religious whackos citing an esoteric biblical passage in proof of their belief that scratching your right cheek on your butt on Tuesday is a mortal sin, or such.

      But I deeply appreciate you providing the above information supporting the constitutionality of the Social Security Act.

      Incidentally, did you know that Ronald Reagan once denounced Social Security as being unconstitutional? LOL!

      The Barefoot Accountant

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