Paul Ryan

At first glance, Paul Ryan seems like a promising candidate. He claims he has an effective plan in place to balance the budget, improve the economy, and get Americans back to work. The interesting part about his plan is that during his first one-on-one interview with Brit Hume on Tuesday, Ryan admitted, after waffling around the question, that under the Romney/Ryan plan, it would take at least 10 years to balance the budget. He couldn’t provide a clear answer as to what exactly the plan entailed; instead, he chose to attack Obama rather than provide answers.

And there’s more bad news.  

Ryan’s track record promises to take a step backward for women’s reproductive rights -- a right that Obama, Biden, and previous administrations have fought hard to take a stand for. Ryan co-sponsored a bill that could ban in-vitro fertilization for couples trying to conceive. He supports banning many common forms of birth control for women, including the pill. And if that’s not enough, Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps women fight for equal pay for equal work. Although the economy is certainly an important issue, protecting the fundamental equal rights of women is paramount. I prefer not to have a man, or the government, decide what my reproductive rights and options are.

Ryan also supports Romney’s plan to provide tax incentives for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. Ryan supports a tax plan that would give our wealthiest Americans an after tax income increase by at least 8.7 percent. Under Ryan’s plan, people earning over $1 million per year would receive tax cuts of over $260,000 each year. We can also say good-bye to Medicare with Ryan in office and hello to a voucher system for our seniors.   

Is Ryan a good choice for Romney? Only if you support a track record on radical conservative views on women’s health. Ryan likely helped Romney reconnect with our most conservative voters, but for your average American, Ryan promises to move our country backward not forward. 

This post is part of a weekly conversation with our Moms Matter 2012 political bloggers. To see the original question and what the other writers have to say, see "Romney Picks Paul Ryan as VP."


Image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr