Paul Ryan has proudly announced that he will be moderating a Poverty Summit in South Carolina with Senator Tim Scott this weekend, recently acknowledging that “there are few challenges tougher than the fight against poverty, and we need all hands on deck.”
Does Paul Ryan forget what his history is on addressing poverty and helping people with low and moderate incomes?
First, examine Paul Ryan’s 2014 budget proposal that achieves 69 percent of its budget cuts from programs for people with low or moderate incomes. This included deep cuts to food and heating aid for the poor and $732 billion from Medicaid, the healthcare system for the poor. The Associated Press noted that this Medicaid cut “could drive millions of people from the program, including seniors in nursing homes and children from low-income households.”
For another example of Paul Ryan’s dangerous record for the impoverished and their livelihood, look no further than the House of Representatives’ vote this week to again defund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood serves a disproportionately high share of low-income women and provides healthcare that is critical to women, men and families across the country. There is no doubt that Paul Ryan’s repeated charge to defund Planned Parenthood puts the health of these women and children at risk.
Paul Ryan has repeatedly failed to offer assistance to low- and moderate-income families in their efforts to achieve some measure of financial stability. He has voted against raising the minimum wage at least ten times, and does not support a bill to guarantee paid sick leave, even to take care of a sick child. This should really come as no surprise given that his budget eliminated child-care subsidies for low-income families.
The U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops said it best in 2012, that deficit reduction “must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people,” and the Ryan budget cuts “fail this basic moral test.”
“When it comes to addressing poverty and helping low- and moderate-income families, Paul Ryan ranks dead last. If anyone needs to get their ‘hands on deck,’ it’s Paul Ryan. But given his long history of budget priorities and votes that cause serious harm to the financial stability, health and general safety of the impoverished in the United States, we won’t hold our breath,” said Meredith Kelly of the DCCC.
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Further Background:
Budget Priorities
Headline: CBPP: “Ryan Plan Gets 69 Percent of Its Budget Cuts From Programs for People With Low or Moderate Incomes.” [CBPP, 4/8/14]
Headline: AP: “GOP budget slashes spending, aid to poor.” [AP, 4/2/14]
Ryan Proposed Cutting $3.3 Trillion From Programs For People With Low Or Middle Incomes. “House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget cuts $3.3 trillion over ten years (2015-2024) from programs that serve people of limited means. That’s 69 percent of its $4.8 trillion in total non-defense budget cuts.” [CBPP, 4/8/14]
CBPP: House GOP Budget “Sure To Significantly Increase Poverty, Hardship, And Inequality.” “The conclusion is inescapable. The budget would cause tens of millions of people to become uninsured or underinsured, make it harder for low-income students to afford college, shrink nutrition assistance, and squeeze many other such programs. Consequently, it’s sure to significantly increase poverty, hardship, and inequality.” [CBPP, 3/17/15]
New York Times Editorial: House GOP Budget’s “Deep Cuts Land Squarely On The People Who Most Need Help: The Poor And The Working Class.” “The plan’s deep cuts land squarely on the people who most need help: the poor and the working class. The plan also would turn Medicare into a system of unspecified subsidies to buy private insurance by the time Americans who are now 56 years old become eligible. And it would strip 16.4 million people of health insurance by repealing the Affordable Care Act (the umpteenth attempt by Republicans to do so since the law was enacted in 2010).” [Editorial, New York Times, 3/18/15]
Two-Thirds Of Cuts From Programs That Help Low- And Modest-Income Americans – Though Programs Account For Less Than One-Fourth Of Federal Costs. “Over all, at least two-thirds of the $5 trillion in cuts over 10 years would come from programs that focus on low- and modest-income Americans, even though such programs account for less than one-fourth of all federal program costs.” [Editorial, New York Times, 3/18/15]
U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops: Deficit Reduction “Must Protect And Not Undermine The Needs Of Poor And Vulnerable People,” And The Ryan Budget Cuts “Fail This Basic Moral Test.” “Congress should assess every budget decision by how it reflects the shared responsibility of the government and other institutions to protect human life and dignity, especially of the poor and vulnerable, said the bishop who chairs the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in a May 8 letter to the House of Representatives. ‘The Catholic bishops of the United States recognize the serious deficits our country faces, and we acknowledge that Congress must make difficult decisions about how to allocate burdens and sacrifices and balance resources and needs,’ wrote Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, as the House prepared to vote on a reconciliation package for the 2013 budget. ‘However, deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people. The proposed cuts to programs in the budget reconciliation fail this basic moral test.’” [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 5/08/12
Food Stamps
AP: Ryan Budget Plan Relied On “Deep Cuts To . . . Food And Heating Aid To The Poor.” “Ryan’s plan would wrestle the government’s chronic deficits under control after a decade, relying on deep cuts to Medicaid, highway construction, federal employee pension benefits, food and heating aid to the poor, and Pell Grants for college students from low-income families.” [AP, 4/2/14]
Ryan Budget’s Cuts Would Force 3.8 Million People Off Food Stamp Assistance. “The Ryan budget cuts SNAP (formerly food stamps) by $137 billion over the next decade. It adopts the harsh SNAP cuts that the House passed last September — which would force 3.8 million people off the program in 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office — and then converts SNAP to a block grant in 2019 and imposes still-deeper cuts.” [CBPP, 4/03/14]
House Republican Budget Would Cut SNAP By Over $100 Billion, Or 15 Percent. “House Republicans are set to unveil a budget on Tuesday morning that will reportedly slice over a hundred billion dollars out of the food stamps program over the coming decade. Such cuts would amount to about 15 percent of the program’s projected spending over those years.” [Think Progress, 3/17/15]
Price Modeled SNAP Proposal On Ryan’s Block Grant Plan. “The last time the GOP proposed food stamps cuts in a budget rather than pursuing them through the farm bill, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed cutting about $125 billion from the program over 10 years by converting it to block grants. Both Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-IN) are reportedly modeling their SNAP proposals on that idea rather than the narrower changes resulting from the farm bill.” [Think Progress, 3/17/15]
Medicaid
Associated Press: Medicaid Cuts “Could Drive Millions of People from the Program, Including Seniors in Nursing Homes.” “Steep cuts to Medicaid, which Ryan proposes to turn into a block grant program managed by the states, could drive millions of people from the program, including seniors in nursing homes and children from low-income households. Ryan proposes to cut projected costs of Medicaid and other non-Obama-sponsored health care programs by 17 percent over the decade.” [Associated Press, 4/01/14]
CBPP: Republican Budget Would Cut $1.5 Trillion Total from Medicaid Over 10 Years.“House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget again proposes to radically restructure Medicaid by converting it into a block grant, and it would cut federal Medicaid funding steeply, by $732 billion over the next decade. It would also repeal health reform’s Medicaid expansion. The combined total cut to Medicaid would exceed more than $1.5 trillion over ten years, relative to current law. All told, it would add tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured.” [CBPP, 4/01/14]
Republican Budget Would Eliminate Medicaid Expansion and Impose Work Requirements on Welfare Recipients. “As with past budget proposals, Mr. Ryan seeks to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, then turn the health care program for the poor into block grants to the states — saving $732 billion over the decade.” [New York Times, 4/01/14]
Planned Parenthood
Headline: Bangor Daily News Editorial: “Defunding Planned Parenthood would deprive poor women of needed health care.” [Editorial, Bangor Daily News, 7/29/15]
Headline: The Hill: “Planned Parenthood often only contraception provider available: study.” [The Hill, 9/8/15]
Guttmacher Study Found Planned Parenthood Clinics Were Only Option For Low-Income Women Seeking Family Planning Care In One-Fifth Of Counties Served By Planned Parenthood. “Planned Parenthood is sometimes the only option for low-income women seeking contraception, according to a study released Tuesday. The pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute performed the analysis, published in the journal ‘Health Affairs,’ upon the request of the Congressional Budget Office, which asked for help identifying places where Planned Parenthood is the only option. The study finds that in one-fifth of the 491 U.S. counties where Planned Parenthood centers are located, they are the only safety-net family planning center available.” [The Hill, 9/8/15]
Guttmacher Study Found Planned Parenthood Serves Disproportionately High Share Of Low-Income Women In Need Of Family Planning Care. “On the other hand, the study released Tuesday shows that Planned Parenthood serves a disproportionately high share of low-income women. Planned Parenthood centers make up 10 percent of publicly-funded family planning clinics, but serve 36 percent of the patients at such centers, according to the analysis. The study also found that Planned Parenthood tends to offer a wider range of contraceptive methods than other providers do.” [The Hill, 9/8/15]
Minimum Wage
Ryan Voted Against Increasing The Minimum Wage At Least 10 Separate Times. [HR 2206, Vote #424, 5/24/07; HR 2206, Vote #333, 5/10/07; HR 1591, Vote #186, 3/23/07; HR 2, Vote #18, 1/10/07; HR5970, Vote #425, 7/29/06; HR5970, Vote #424, 7/29/06; HR2389, Vote #382, 7/19/06; HR2990, Vote#364, 7/12/06; HR4411, Vote #360, 7/11/06; HR5672, Vote #319, 6/27/06]
Family & Medical Leave
Headline: CNN: “House Speaker Paul Ryan against expanding paid family leave.” [CNN, 11/1/15]
Ryan Voted Against Bipartisan Bill Providing Paid Family Leave For Federal Employees. “In 2009, for instance, Ryan voted against the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, which would have allowed federal employees to substitute up to four weeks of available paid leave to take parental leave. The bill passed a then-Democratic House with 24 Republican votes, but the legislation never made it to the Senate floor.” [Politico, 10/21/15]
Ryan Declined To Support Legislation To Guarantee Paid Sick Leave, Including Leave To Take Care Of A Sick Child. “Like every other member of the House GOP caucus, Ryan declined to sign on to a bill sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) guaranteeing up to seven days of paid sick leave for workers at businesses employing 15 or more workers. The paid sick days may go toward to taking care of a sick child.” [Politico, 10/21/15]
Ryan Refused To Take Up Legislation To Establish National Paid Family And Medical Leave Insurance Program. “Ryan also withheld support from another DeLauro bill, this one co-sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D.-N.Y.), that would establish a national paid family and medical leave insurance program through an independent trust fund, funded by employers and employees, within the Social Security Administration. That bill (which would appear to eliminate the disincentive mentioned by Schaeffer) was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, which Ryan chairs. The committee has yet to take up the measure.” [Politico, 10/21/15]
Ryan Budget Eliminated Child-Care Subsidies For Low-Income Families. “The budget he drafted in 2014 would have eliminated the Social Services Block Grant, cutting $16 billion of federal funding for child-care subsidies for low-income families.” [TIME, 10/21/15]
Offensive Statements About the Poor
Ryan: “70 Percent Of Americans Want The American Dream … 30 Percent Want The Welfare State.” RYAN: “The good news is survey after survey, poll after poll, still shows we are a center-right, 70-30 country. 70 percent of Americans want the American Dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want the welfare state.” [Ryan Remarks, American Spectator’s 2011 Robert L. Bartley Gala Dinner, posted 10/2/12]
Ryan Referred To Those On Public Assistance As Living Lives Of “Deficiency.” RYAN: “What we want to do is have welfare reform that gets people off of lives of deficiency and onto to lives of self sufficiency. That’s why we couple this with job training programs and work requirements. We think we ought to make sure that we get people out of the cycle of poverty and, unfortunately, I think the plan that we have in place, the president’s agenda creates more of a dependent culture, creates people that are stuck in poverty because it denies the idea of upward mobility.” [Ryan interview with Chris Wallace, “Fox News Sunday,” Fox News Channel, 3/25/12]
Asked Whether People Should Be Offended By Romney’s “47 Percent” Remarks, Ryan Said, “Not At All.” SIMMONS: “So people should not be offended by that video?” RYAN: “Not at all. Look, he was very inarticulate in how he described it, he acknowledged that much. We believe in social mobility and the American dream, and economic growth and opportunity. That’s the whole premise of our argument.” [Ryan Interview, WTKR (Hampton Roads, VA), 9/18/12]
Ryan Warned Of Turning “Our Safety Net Into A Hammock That Lulls Able-Bodied People To Lives Of Dependency And Complacency, Which Drains Them Of Their Will And Incentive To Make The Most Of Their Lives.” RYAN: “And we risk hitting a tipping point in our society where we have more takers than makers in society. Where we will have turned our safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, which drains them of their will and incentive to make the most of their lives.” [Paul Ryan interview, MacIver Institute, 8/02/12]