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DOVER, NH -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke of the need to encourage "self-sufficiency" amid an uproar over Mitt Romney's recently-surfaced comments about voters' dependency on government.
Brian Snyder / Reuters
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan answers a question at a campaign stop in Dover, New Hampshire September 18, 2012.
Ryan, campaigning Tuesday in New Hampshire, made an oblique reference to the controversial video publicized by the liberal magazine Mother Jones but no explicit mention of the video or its contents.
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The Wisconsin congressman, instead, launched into a more detailed defense of the social safety net and how he and Romney think it is important to move voters off of those programs, and guard against dependence on the government.
The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd reports on a statement that may significantly damage Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.
“By promoting more dependency, by not having jobs and economic growth, people miss their potential,” Ryan said inside the McConnell Community Center. “We should not be measuring the progress of our social programs – programs like food stamps – based upon how many people receive them. We should be measuring the progress of our social programs by how many people we transition off of them into lives of self-sufficiency and jobs and upward mobility.”
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The congressman continued: “We believe in a safety net. We believe in a safety net that is there for people who truly cannot help themselves so they can live a life of dignity but we also believe in a safety net that is there for people who are down on their luck so that they can get back on their feet. We don’t want a safety net that encourages more dependency because there is no economic growth behind it because what that ends up doing is it drains people of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives, to tap their potential, to get on their path to prosperity. That is what unfortunately is what we are seeing in the Obama economy.”
Romney himself is still wrestling with the fallout from the video, having hastily arranged a press conference last night to explain that his words caught on tape were "not elegantly stated." The former Massachusetts governor had been set to spend the day in fundraisers, but added a late afternoon interview on Fox News to his schedule today.
Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for President Obama, responds to Mitt Romney's leaked private fundraising remarks and argues President Barack Obama wants support from all Americans, not just some.
Ryan, at his first of two public events today, stood by his running mate -- making the case for how the GOP ticket would reduce the number of Americans who fall dependent on the government.
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“Our goal, our mission is to address the root causes of poverty instead of simply treating the symptoms of poverty. That's very critical,” Ryan said. “You see, by going after the root causes of poverty and trying to break the cycle of poverty, you need economic growth, you need job creation, you need higher take-home pay.”
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I'm reading and reading and reading...then I realize that it's the same four Obamites stroking each other back and forth. Come on you bunch of morons, since when is working for a living and being "self-sufficient" a bad thing? Someone has to pay taxes so the leeches can sit home all day, collect welfare and drink malt liquor on the front porch of their government susidized homes!
Your a jerk. You have no idea how many slackers there are in the world. Yet you whitewas hardworking americans. You stereotype. Look around you, moron. You see people all around you working in menial jobs and you have the nerve to call them low lifes. For every slacker, I can guarantee you 100 poor people are busting thier butt taking care of your mother in a nursing home, your landscaping, your laundry and so forth! Until you give us credible statistic of how many of the 47% are sitting at home eating bon bons or boozing it up I suggest you shut your ignorant trap!
@Disgusted-52
Yeah...so make sure you go home and tell your lazy ass grandfather and grandmother and all your old kin folks to pay their fair share and stop taking my tax money for their medicare or other benefits they get. Better yet, tell your moronic children they better not apply for a student grant on my tax money. Even better than that, give back the child tax earn credit you received.
D-52,
Tell me how a Romney/Ryan presidency is going to improve your life immediately and in the future?
The american people do not need Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney to tell them to be self sufficient. That is so condescending coming from to guys who were born into wealthy families. I see the 47 % every day busting their butts going to work or looking for work. Are there a few slackers? Yes. But to white wash hard working poor people who happen to be on food stamps because this country allows companies to get away with not providing a living wage is obscene! If they want to help this country, and they want to go back to the days where people could live the lives of the fifties I say make companies provide wages like they used to do that would allow one spouse to stay home and care for their children while the other works.
They are also insulting our military, and senior citizens and the disabled. I hope those in these category will wise up and realize these republicans are not your friends.
American's have always been self-sufficient, and many have earned benefits from previous stewardship in the economy. Leave it to Ryan and Romney to stress keeping benefits from those who earned those benefits. The TEA-Republican mantra is to limit social benefits while stressing lower taxes on the most well-to-do in our society.
Everyone in America is dependent on the government! Every American receives something from the federal government whether it is retirement, health care benefits or tax write-offs. The past is the past. Nothing will change that! What needs to be changed is the rational of how to effect change to benefit the people instead of the better-off, well-to-do millionaires. Tax Lawyers and accountants are well aware of the deductions, exclusions, limitations, deductions, depreciation's, amortization's and other ways to exclude or expense costs against profits above and below taxable income. The every day layperson does not have the ability or validity to use these methodologies for lowering taxable value amounts. Several thousand of the high income households and millions of large to mid-sized corporations use this same methodology. The tax code must be fixed for the average taxpayer and limit all the deductions, exclusions, limitations, deductions, depreciation's, amortization's and other ways business profit!
There should be no screaming about individuals not paying taxes, as all taxes paid by corporations and business in general is passed onto the consumer.
Does Americas armed forces protect us all equally? From a standpoint of protection of assets - that is clearly not the case. It is only logical that the more of your assets the US armed forces protect, the more of those costs that you should pay . Those with lots of assets would pay considerable. Those with few assets would pay very little. This would be a more true measure of "self sufficient", and "responsible". And yet we have our primary national revenue system based on an income tax . This makes no sense in light of what really is being protected-- accumulation of personal/corporate assets. Our primary national revenue system should be changed to a national "net asset tax" -- with a much lesser emphasis on income. Now those who will scream about the value of personal/democratic freedom, etc., etc., -- do you really believe that democratic freedom is as valuable to someone with no economic freedom, as to someone with great wealth who has unlimited economic freedom?? The best example is liability insurance. You buy liability insurance based on the amount of asset you are trying to protect - not on how much annual income you earn. Someone explain the difference in these two concepts to me.
It's as if Ryan just realized what a "social safety net" is. It's there just in case... like insurance, something you hope you don't need but are darned glad it's there if you do. It is, for most, the little support that helps you get back to your feet for the next round.
Is there some waste, fraud, abuse? Inevitably. Name a public - or even a private - institution that doesn't suffer that from someone determined to cheat. Then again, does a small percentage of "dependents" really affect us? The trickle of money they get goes right back into the economy as payments of rent, food, gas, health insurance and other basics. With a 1.6x velocity of money (or more), it is still a net positive.
Better than having that person on the street, desperate & hungry where their next step might be the hospital or jail on our dime.
Congress wastes more money giving Big Oil "exploration subsidies" than it will ever hand out to a welfare dependent, and those oil subsidies don't necessarily come back into the US economy...
Vilifying a few folks at the bottom is economic small ball. The big savings reside with the big players. We just need the will to go after those that have amassed enough political muscle to fight back.
Ryan... Even America didn't get to where it is all by itself. It had a little help from freindly countries(allies?) who were kind enough to give us welfare in our times of need. That helped lift us up to become the country we have become. We couldn't have fought the red coats, the axis powers, the terrrorists, etc, etc alone. Our nation cannot run on our resources alone.. So misguided.
How can anyone in america be self sufficent, when Romney, shipped our jobs over seas. Ryon is not as smart as people think. With Romney's record at Bain, he has caused a lot of pain to america. He wants us to trust him! look at what happened in the state that did. Thay went from the top in jobs, to the bottom. Now he is wanting the country to trust him again. Ryon????????? dumbest of the dumbest!!!!!!!!!!
we the people,who are the real government,we know ovomit the ineligble treasonous traitor,is losing big time,we the people by me,haven,t listened to or believed,any polls or medias,in a long time,we know there all bought and paid for by the ineligble treasonous traitor,and his band of communist puppets,so what the polle say,and the medais say,means absoluty nothing to we the people by me.1st ovomit/lucifer ignored a georgia supreme court subpoena{treason}2nd ovomit/devil has a social security card,which belongs to a dead connecticut person{fraud/felony/treason}3rd ovomit sent additional throops to afganistan without approval of congress{treason against we the people,and the constitiuion4th ovomit/himmler}has all his records sealed/hidden,and spends millions to keep them hidden/sealed,we the people like to know a little about the person were voting for,we can,t do that with hidden/sealed records{treason}5th ovomit/marxist has a live birth form on the wh ineternet,which isn,t a legal birth certificate{fraud/felony/treason}6th ovomits father was born in kenyan making the ineligible treason traitor,ineligble to be president{fraud/felony/treason}we the people demand the head racist a/g holdup and his boss ovomit,and the head of home land security immediately arrested for the botched operation fast and furious,were border guard brian terry was murdered by guns from the fast and furious operation,for which a/g holdp was in charge of,and ovomit was a/g holdup boss,we demand the immediate arrests of all 3 people,for the wrong murder of brian terry,no justice,no peace.god bless ron paul,sheriff joe and cold case posse,brian terry and family,rip brian terry,chuck norris,frank serpico,and all american veternas/citizens.one nation undner god