Get to KNOW, PAUL RYAN

August 11, 2012

Mary --
This morning, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan stood on a platform in Norfolk, Virginia, and introduced themselves to the country as "America's Comeback Team."

 "Go Back Team" would be more appropriate -- because a Romney-Ryan administration is the definition of a fast track back to the failed, top-down economic policies of the past.

 In Ryan, Romney has selected a running mate best known for designing the extreme GOP budget that would end Medicare as we know it, and -- just like Romney's plan -- actually raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for an additional $250,000 tax break for millionaires and billionaires.

As a leader of the House Republicans and a Tea Party favorite, Congressman Ryan has led the relentless, intensely ideological battle for these kinds of budget-busting policies that punish seniors and the middle class.

Today, Romney doubled down on those policies.
But most Americans don't know Paul Ryan. In the coming days, the other side will spend a lot of time trying to define Romney's choice and what it says about his candidacy -- so we put together a brand-new website on Romney-Ryan with everything you need to know.

Check it out, watch the video, and then show your support for President Obama and Vice President Biden by sharing it with friends and family.

If their records are any indication of how they'd govern, it's not looking good (unless you're a right-wing conservative in the top 5 percent of income-earners and NOT a woman or a worker counting on Medicare in your future).

This isn't a matter of opinion:

-- As an architect of the extreme GOP budget, Ryan will be Romney's biggest advocate for his plan to give more tax breaks to millionaires, paid for by $2,000 in higher taxes on middle-class families with kids.

-- The Ryan plan, which Romney said is "an excellent piece of work, and very much needed," calls for deep cuts in education -- from college scholarships to Head Start -- critical scientific research, and clean energy investments, all to help pay for those tax cuts. 

-- Ryan authored the original plan to convert Medicare into a voucher program, costing seniors an additional $6,000 or more each year. 

-- Ryan talks tough on balancing the budget, but his own plan would fail to do that for a generation.  The burden of balancing any Ryan budget falls squarely on the backs of seniors and middle-class families -- while no one at the top is asked to pay even a dollar more.

-- Both Romney and Ryan are severely conservative, threatening to take us backward on women's issues and civil rights. Ryan cosponsored a bill that would ban common forms of birth control, in vitro fertilization, and abortions even in cases of rape or incest. He voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, voted against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and sponsored a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality.

On so many issues, Paul Ryan, like Mitt Romney, has taken extreme positions that are out of touch with the values most Americans share.

It's our job, especially in these first few days and weeks, to make sure voters get the facts on his record, and a clear picture as to what a Romney-Ryan administration would look like for regular people, when the slogans fade away and the real policy decisions they'd face as president and vice president are on the table.

Check out the new video and site on Romney-Ryan:
http://my.barackobama.com/Go-Back-Team
Thanks for everything.
Big day.

David Axelrod

P.S. -- We are 87 days out from Election Day. This campaign is relying on people like you to help build it in the time we've got left.