• Watching the Republican convention: Day three

    By Melanie on August 30, 2012

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    Paul Ryan closed out day three of the Republican convention with a speech full of attacks and blame—and not one tangible idea to move the country forward. But his speech has gained the most attention for just how far and how often he distorted the truth about the President, his own record, and Mitt Romney.

    A few of his biggest lies:

    On his district: He blamed President Obama for an auto plant that closed in his district—but the truth is the plant had shut down in 2008, when George W. Bush was president.

    On Medicare: Ryan said that he and Romney would save Medicare for future generations. Their plan would actually replace Medicare as we know it with a voucher system—raising costs for seniors.

    On the deficit: Ryan said, “President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him.” False.

    On the middle class: Ryan called for “the strong to protect the weak.” But the Romney-Ryan plan would ask for nothing from the wealthiest Americans—instead their plan would raise taxes on middle-class families, and strip key programs like Pell Grants and Medicare, just to provide more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

    Tonight is the final night of the convention, where Mitt Romney will accept the Republican presidential nomination. It will be his turn to tell the truth about his own record, and his plan for the country.

  • Paul Ryan vs. The Facts

    August 30, 2012

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    Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan delivered a forty-minute speech that was riddled with numerous, already debunked attacks. The "intellectual leader of the Republican Party" not only failed on the facts, he failed to offer one concrete idea for this country's future. Take a look at Ryan's flagrant disregard for the truth, and then share this video with your friends.

  • Tampa speaks up

    August 29, 2012

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    Tonight, Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee for vice president and champion of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of middle class and seniors, will address the Republican National Convention. But before he goes on, a few regular folks—college students and retirees, veterans, and Medicare recipients—stopped by to make their voices heard about what matters to the middle class.

    For many Floridians, health care is a top priority, and the people we met today are concerned about what the extreme Romney-Ryan budget would mean for themselves and their families. Carole, who shared her story during this morning's press conference, says her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago—and there is no way they'd be able to pay his medical bills without Medicare.

    "Medicare paid for his excellent surgeons and the excellent treatment. It paid for chemotherapy, which is very, very expensive. We're middle class. Up until then we had a charmed life, but it hits you. It hits all of a sudden."

    The fact that Mitt Romney and Ryan want to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system prompted Carole to get up in front of a room of journalists and cameras and share her story—even though she says she'd never dreamed she'd do such a thing. There's just too much at risk to keep quiet. Carole explains, "I would say our medical bills are over a million dollars. Medicare paid for this. We have a small supplement, but it's dependent on Medicare. We have private homeowners' insurance that we can't afford anymore. If there's a voucher program for health care, I'm skeptical about turning over medical insurance to a private company."

    Veterans are also worried about what a Romney-Ryan ticket means for their health. Annie, a Tampa senior who stood up at today's press conference, says her husband is a veteran who suffers from PTSD. She's worried that if the Republicans get elected, his medical benefits will get cut—or that the VA will be forced to cut back on his doctors and counselors. It's a concern Elena, a Tampa-area veteran, shares. "The President has always had our back," Elena says. "If we elect Romney, we'd be turning our backs on veterans when we need them most—when they gave us their all."

    Annie sums up what's at stake. It's the reason they all came out today: "I don't want to go back to those eight years that we had before. I just don't want to go back. I want to go forward."

  • What Mitt Romney has to say about women's health, part 2

    August 29, 2012

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    When it comes to deeply personal health decisions, Mitt Romney is willing to put the government between a woman and her doctor. Learn more about what the Romney-Ryan ticket would mean for women's health and women's rights here—then share the facts with your friends and family.

  • Kansas Gov. Brownback acknowledges that Romney’s welfare attack is false

    August 29, 2012

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    The Romney campaign’s claim that President Obama has eliminated welfare-to-work requirements has been thoroughly debunked by nonpartisan fact checkers and widely criticized as intentionally misleading by independent news organizations. Today Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback acknowledged the truth, saying that, “as far as I have seen,” Romney’s welfare attack ads are false. Check out the video, then share it with your friends.

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