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Voters in southeastern Wisconsin have a historically important choiceon Nov. 6. Longtime Republican Congressman Paul Ryan will appear on the ballottwice, as Mitt Romney’s running mate and as the candidate for the 1stCongressional District of Wisconsin.
Ryan is getting a serious challenge for Congress from Kenoshaentrepreneur Rob Zerban—who outraised Ryan this past quarter—and, nationally,from President Barack Obama, who polls show has been beating the Romney-Ryanticket in Wisconsin.
Ryan’s campaign did not respond to the Shepherd’s request for an interview about his record, nor has theJanesville native agreed to debate Zerban in the district.
But Zerban and Tom Perriello, president and CEO of the Washington,D.C.-based Center for American Progress Action Fund, were happy to discuss theissues facing Wisconsin voters.
Perriello, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia, and theCenter for American Progress (CAP) have done extensive research on theRomney-Ryan agenda and Ryan’s record in Congress. He said Ryan’s ideologicalpurity has made it impossible for Republicans to negotiate solutions to thenation’s most pressing problems.
“I think he’sprobably one of the biggest single reasons that we have the deficit we have,”Perriello said while visiting the Shepherd’s offices last week. “There were seriousefforts to get a grand bargain on dealing with our fiscal situation, and Ryanin some way tanked every one of them.”
He said theRomney-Ryan blueprint rewards the financial sector, outsourcing and speculationat the expense of every other industry. In contrast, Perriello said, theDemocrats have heeded the call to invest in “building, making and growingthings again.”
Here’s how the twoagendas compare on taxes, jobs, health care and women’s issues.
Ryan is getting a serious challenge for Congress from Kenoshaentrepreneur Rob Zerban—who outraised Ryan this past quarter—and, nationally,from President Barack Obama, who polls show has been beating the Romney-Ryanticket in Wisconsin.
Ryan’s campaign did not respond to the Shepherd’s request for an interview about his record, nor has theJanesville native agreed to debate Zerban in the district.
But Zerban and Tom Perriello, president and CEO of the Washington,D.C.-based Center for American Progress Action Fund, were happy to discuss theissues facing Wisconsin voters.
Perriello, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia, and theCenter for American Progress (CAP) have done extensive research on theRomney-Ryan agenda and Ryan’s record in Congress. He said Ryan’s ideologicalpurity has made it impossible for Republicans to negotiate solutions to thenation’s most pressing problems.
“I think he’sprobably one of the biggest single reasons that we have the deficit we have,”Perriello said while visiting the Shepherd’s offices last week. “There were seriousefforts to get a grand bargain on dealing with our fiscal situation, and Ryanin some way tanked every one of them.”
He said theRomney-Ryan blueprint rewards the financial sector, outsourcing and speculationat the expense of every other industry. In contrast, Perriello said, theDemocrats have heeded the call to invest in “building, making and growingthings again.”
Here’s how the twoagendas compare on taxes, jobs, health care and women’s issues.
Tax Rates
- Romney-Ryan: Romney and Ryan differslightly on how they would restructure tax rates. Romney pledges to retain allof the Bush tax cuts—including the tax breaks for those earning a milliondollars a year—and then reduce all tax rates by 20%. And although Romney deniedit during last week’s debate, his plan to cut taxes by 20% across the boardwould cut taxes by $5 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Those earning more than a million dollars annually would get a whopping$250,000 in extra tax cuts in a Romney administration on top of the $140,000average tax cut they received under the Bush plan, CAP found. Romney would alsocut tax rates by 20% for middle- and lower-income families, but to make hisbudget “revenue neutral” he would have to do away with some of the taxdeductions that many average Americans rely on, such as the mortgage taxdeduction and college savings credits. As a result, middle-class families wouldsee an average tax increase of more than $2,000 a year.
Ryan’s House budget goes even further and would get rid of the topthree tax brackets so that top earners would pay 25%, and he’d also combine the15% and 10% rates into a 10% rate. This would far and away give a bigger taxbreak to millionaires—about 125 times as big as a tax break for a middle-classcouple, CAP reported.
Neither Romney nor Ryan has specified which tax deductions they wouldeliminate or modify to fill up the $5 trillion tax hole they would create.
- Obama-Zerban: “I think a good first stepwould be to end the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000, which meansgoing back to the Clinton-era tax rates of 39.6% from what they are right now,35%,” Zerban said.
In August, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that this wouldsave the government $950 billion over a 10-year period; $823 billion fromrevenue and $127 billion from lower interest payments on the debt needed to payfor the high-earners’ tax break.
Zerban also supports raising tax rates on capital gains and carriedinterest, profits earned by hedge fund and private equity managers, saying thatthey should be taxed as regular income. Similarly, Obama has proposed taxinglong-term capital gains for high-income earners at 20%, which the Tax PolicyCenter found would generate about $36 billion between 2013-2022. Obama alsowants to tax carried interest as ordinary income.
“I would also close tax loopholes for corporate jets,” Zerban said. “Asa small businessman, I didn’t need a corporate jet tax loophole to employpeople. This is just common sense.”
Outsourcing Jobs
- Romney-Ryan: Currently, big U.S.corporations are allowed to delay payment of their taxes on their foreignprofits, an incentive to invest overseas. But Romney and Ryan would givecorporations an even bigger incentive to create low-wage jobs in othercountries. Both Romney’s agenda and Ryan’s House budget create a “territorial”tax system, one in which overseas profits are never taxed. Never. Foreignprofits would be totally tax-exempt in a Romney-Ryan administration.
CAP calculated that the Romney-Ryan outsourcing incentive and theiropposition to the clean energy industry would cost Wisconsin 60,000 jobs.
While Romney and Ryan now oppose the auto bailout (Ryan actually votedfor it in Congress), the plan saved up to 28,000 auto-related jobs inWisconsin, CAP found.
- Obama-Zerban: Obama has made“insourcing” a priority by forming an insourcing forum and visitingmanufacturers that have brought jobs back to the United States, such asMilwaukee’s Master Lock. In addition, Obama wants to end tax deductions foroutsourcing jobs overseas, add incentives for domestic job creators, and createa $2 billion annual tax break for manufacturers to keep them in the UnitedStates. His leadership on this issue seems to be working—in 2010 and 2011, theUnited States ended its decade-long trend of losing manufacturing jobs byadding them instead. And, of course, his auto bailout helped to save jobs acrossthe country, but especially in hard-hit Midwestern states like Michigan, Ohioand Wisconsin.
Zerban supports insourcing efforts, saying that corporations’willingness to invest overseas has cost the 1st Congressional District itsGeneral Motors jobs in Janesville, its Chrysler plant in Kenosha, and Delphijobs in Oak Creek.
“I think there should be a penalty paid by corporations that do shiptheir jobs overseas, companies that are selling their goods and services in theU.S. and not producing them here,” Zerban said. “We need to make sure that theyare paying their fair share to support the infrastructure that they are usingto conduct their businesses, whether it’s consumption of energy or transferringtheir goods on our roads and bridges.”
Health Care and Medicare
- Romney-Ryan: The Republicanstandard-bearers would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) immediately upontaking office. They’ve claimed that no seniors currently on Medicare would beaffected by the change. However, ACA is already providing benefits to seniorson Medicare, such as free cancer screenings and diabetes testing. CAP foundthat more than 325,000 Wisconsin seniors are already benefiting from ACA’sMedicare provisions.
Both support turning Medicare into a voucher program for those under55, which would make Medicare itself unworkable by reducing the purchasing pooland allowing healthy seniors to opt out of the system, leaving the mostexpensive consumers on the plan.
Another problem is that the Romney-Ryan vouchers would not keep up withmedical costs. If their plan were in place today, seniors would have to pay anestimated $6,400 more in out-of-pocket payments for their medical insurance—andthis amount would likely grow each year.
And the Romney-Ryan plan would force those under 55 to save a shockingsum of money for their health care during retirement. According to CAP’scalculations, today’s 54-year-old would need to save $59,450 for his or herhealth expenses; a 49-year-old would have to save $124,626; a 39-year-old wouldhave to put away $216,631; and today’s 29-year-old would have to save awhopping $331,170 for health expenses that would have been covered undertraditional Medicare.
- Obama-Zerban: Zerban supports the ACA,although he said he would have preferred creating a Medicare-for-All system tolower health care costs, reform the health care industry in a holistic mannerand increase the risk pool with healthier, younger consumers.
“It’s hurting our economy by not addressing this once and for all in aholistic way,” Zerban said. “Internationally, it puts us at a competitivedisadvantage because our companies are paying a disproportionate cost intotheir health care. Internally, we are not creating the environment that allowsa small entrepreneur to survive. People are afraid of being bankrupted bymedical bills.”
He said Republicans have never supported Medicare “and their tool tokill it is the Ryan budget.”
Zerban lashed out at the Bush administration’s Medicare PartD—developed by then-Health Secretary Tommy Thompson and supported byRyan—because it prevents the government from negotiating with pharmaceuticalcompanies for lower-cost drugs, calling it a “giveaway to Big Pharma.” Theprogram created $8 trillion in unfunded liabilities, according to a report byBush-era Comptroller General David Walker.
Women’s Issues
- Romney-Ryan: Since the top-of-the-ticketRepublicans would repeal “Obamacare,” they’d repeal the consumer protectionsfor women that are built into it, such as free cancer and well-woman screeningsand no-pay contraception, and allow for-profit insurance companies to chargewomen more simply because of their gender. CAP estimated that 967,000 women inWisconsin would lose these preventative services if Romney and Ryan have theirway.
Both candidates have danced around the issue of abortion, too. Romneyhas said he would end funding for Planned Parenthood and both candidates wouldlike to limit legal abortions and end exemptions that Republicans havesupported for years. In Congress, Ryan pushed a “personhood” bill that wouldgrant constitutional protections to fertilized eggs. That would jeopardizein-vitro fertilization treatments, some contraceptives and embryonic stem cellresearch. Along with Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, Ryan attempted to redefinerape. Neither candidate supports the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makesit easier to sue for illegal, unequal pay.
- Obama-Zerban: Bothcandidates support a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Zerban said he’d liketo make them “safe, legal and rare.” Both support the protections built intothe ACA for women and both support the Lilly Ledbetter Act. On Jan. 29, 2009,it was the first bill that Obama signed into law.
