The Romney/Ryan Plan – no "Path to Prosperity" for the Middle Class

Now that Mitt Romney has announced Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee, Americans see a clearer picture of the choices a Romney-Ryan administration would make, and the results aren’t good for the middle class. The Romney-Ryan budget would end Medicare as we know it while hurting middle class families.
As Democratic governors work to create jobs and expand opportunity, it’s important to set the record straight on how the Romney-Ryan plan hits states particularly hard – and how their budget would damage our economic recovery with a return to the failed policies that drove our nation into the Bush recession.
We know that a modern economy requires modern investments – and reducing funds for infrastructure, education, and job training while simultaneously slashing the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans is a recipe for moving us backward and slowing our economic recovery.
The Romney-Ryan plan breaks promises to seniors by ending Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program and shifting thousands of dollars in healthcare costs to them – all to pay for a $250,000 tax cut for every millionaire. Their plan would also cut funding to Medicaid by 34% – putting children at risk of losing their healthcare as states are forced to make even deeper cuts.
The Romney-Ryan plan undercuts middle class opportunity by cutting education funding for our kids and job training programs for adults. It would force layoffs of teachers and education workers, and make devastating cuts to special education programs and Head Start, jeopardizing the essential program for thousands of low-income kids across the country. And the Romney-Ryan budget makes deep cuts to job training and education programs that help states’ residents apply for, find, and hold their jobs – the wrong choice for states working to build a modern workforce in a changing economy.
The Romney-Ryan plan would slash highway and transportation aid to states by 20% – increasing traffic congestion and eliminating construction jobs.
And the Romney-Ryan plan would make deep funding cuts to state and local governments that have already been stretched thin after years of deep cuts brought on by the Bush Recession. At a time when a robust recovery is being held back by massive public sector losses, we risk doing further harm to our economic recovery. Their job-killing plan proposes cuts that are three times deeper than even the automatic sequestration cuts scheduled to take effect in January if Congress fails to act.
The choice between these two visions for our future couldn’t be clearer: we can move our country and our states forward with a balanced approach to create jobs and expand opportunity, or we can go back to the failed policies that drove our country into recession and job losses.
 
Jobs.Opportunity. Now.,

Martin O’Malley