Rep. Alan Grayson joined the set of Current TV's Viewpoint this Tuesday evening and was asked about former vice presidential nominee and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's widely panned budget proposal just released this week, and as we've come to expect from Congressman Grayson, he didn't mince words with his criticism of just who Ryan is looking out for with his proposals.
Rep. Alan Grayson: Paul Ryan wants sick poor people to die:
While discussing the Republican congressman’s latest budget proposal on Current TV, Grayson accused Ryan of wishing a large swath of Americans would die.
“In one case after another, you look at his principles, you look at his vision, and they’re a nightmare for America,” he said. “He wants Americans to work until they die, he wants poor people who get sick not be able to see a doctor, not to get the care they need, not to get better, he wants them to die, and he wants an America that consists of nothing but cheap labor for his corporate patrons.”
Ryan’s budget would repeal most of Obamacare, partially privatize Medicare, and cut discretionary spending on food stamps and other programs, while lowering the corporate tax rate. Grayson claimed that Ryan also wanted to cut Social Security, citing Ryan’s self-professed admiration for the libertarian novelist Ayn Rand.
“Paul Ryan believes that Social Security is unconstitutional,” Grayson explained. “Just like anyone who follows the writings of Ayn Rand would believe. If you read the Fountianhead, if you read similar fiction — although they don’t regard it as fiction — you come to the conclusion that these are people who believe government itself, anything that does anything for people other than defend the borders, is fundamentally immoral and unconstitutional.”
Grayson didn't mince words as well when it came to President Obama and whether he might be willing to make a deal with Republicans which cuts our social safety nets: Rep. Alan Grayson: ‘There is no fiscal crisis’ and ‘Republicans are crisis junkies’ :
Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., joins John Fugelsang on “Viewpoint” to weigh in on news that President Obama told Senate Democrats he was open to considering cuts to federal programs such as Social Security and Medicare. “I take no pleasure in saying this because the president is my president — I voted for him twice and he’s the leader of my party — but on this regard the president is wrong,” Grayson says.
Grayson also shares his thoughts on the Congressional budget battle. “This terrible preoccupation with austerity, with deficits, with debt is mistaken,” Grayson says. “The government has never been able to borrow at such low rates for my entire lifetime, in fact, going back 100 years, the government’s never been able to borrow at 2 percent before — that’s what the rates are these days — and that just shows you that there is no fiscal crisis. … We’ve simply given in to the Republican mindset of crises.”
And as Grayson pointed out to host John Fugelsang, if our politicians are really worried about making sure Social Security remains solvent for the long term, they'd raise the income cap, or tax investment income.
