Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, (R-Wisconsin) has made it plainly clear that he’s on a crusade, a crusade to destroy one of the most important social programs in America, Social Security. Ryan has been pushing for privatization for years now, introducing plans that even President George W. Bush, who was a proponent of privatization back in 2004, said were extreme.
The sad irony about all this is how Mr. Ryan has benefited from Social Security himself. According to a Politico article, published on 08/11/12, Mr Ryan has himself benefited from Social Security after, according to the article, “He saved Social Security survivor’s benefits to pay for attending Miami University, where Ryan double majored in economics and political science in 1992.”
The sheer audacity of Ryan’s actions and his words, I find incredible. Here is a man whose use of a social program very well helped make him who he is today. If Ryan were not pocketing those Social Security checks and saving them for a higher education I believe it safe to say it is very unlikely that he would be where he is today as Speaker of the House.
I find Speaker Ryan’s plans for Social Security beyond disturbing. How can a man who benefited so monumentally from Social Security have the temerity to make the butchering of the very same social program the topmost priority as Leader of the House of Representatives? To me this is like someone becoming skilled in martial arts, and then attacking his sensei. But this is much worse, considering Ryan’s goals are not just to attack the sensei, but also to attack all the other budding pupils the sensei was teaching, who never even had the same advantages and training.
To put it bluntly, Mr. Ryan has made quite a career and a name for himself, thanks in part to a social program he’s trying his utmost to destroy.
Watch Vermont Senators Bernie Sanders discuss Social Security in the video below. Notice how much money the Koch brothers, a pair of capitalists who are anti-worker, anti-union and fervently anti-Social Security, have donated to Paul Ryan’s campaign. Then Ryan’s inexplicable hatred for Social Security will start to make sense.