Nader to Ryan: Time to Debate

[georgephillip]

Ralph Nader has sent Paul Ryan three letters requesting a debate on the Ryan Budget.
Paul's "too busy" to defend his budget in front of millions interested American voters on national television.

Heeeere's Ralph:

"Very well, Mr. Ryan, then why have you refused to civilly debate your proposals and their consequences with any of your critics inside and outside the Congress before a national television audience?

"I requested that you have this important exchange in three letters (first,second,third). Finally, your office demurred on the grounds that you were too busy.

"Are you really too busy to debate your plan which has passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and has been generally endorsed by Mitt Romney?

"Or are you too fearful of trying to defend your numbers and their plutocratic values to the likes of Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

Ryan

Maybe Ryan doesn't want to make Nader look even dumber than he already does.

Nader isn't offering himself as Ryan's antagonist.
How about David Stockman?

"'In short,' wrote Stockman in The New York Times, 'Mr. Ryan’s plan is devoid of credible math or hard policy choices…. Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan have no plan to take on Wall Street, the Fed, the military-industrial complex, social insurance or the nation’s fiscal calamity and no plan to revive capitalist prosperity – just empty sermons.'”

Or Paul Krugman?

"... Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

"Would you be interested in hearing Ryan's responses to this Urban Institute claim in front of millions of US voters?

"His 'block grant plan alone would lead states to drop between 14 and 27 million people (the poor and those with disabilities) from Medicaid by 2021,' according to the Urban Institute."

Ryan

 

[Avatar4321]

Why are the debates limited to the candidates of the two party coup d'état?

Why would anyone care how someone not running for President debates?

What about others who are running for President?

"Jill Stein, the Green Party's 2012 presidential candidate, was arrested in Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon during a bank protest sit-in."

Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Arrested at Bank Protest | Common Dreams

Would you care to share who you'll be voting for?

Ive never made my support for Romney a secret. Ive supported him since the 2008 campaign, though i did question whether i still was going to this year early on.

Still doesnt change the fact that it seems pointless for a candidate to debate someone not running. Doesnt help the campaign at all.

 

[georgephillip]

Ralph Nader has sent Paul Ryan three letters requesting a debate on the Ryan Budget.

Who gives a fuck?

Nader is an irrelevant nutjob,

Truthmatters sent a demand as well, which deserves just as much consideration.

And Ryan's a brown nose who supported two wars and occupations on credit, two Bush tax cuts, and Medicare Part D.

Now Ryan's solution is to gut Medicare and Medicaid and give the rich another big tax cut.

Who would support that?

 

[there4eyeM]

Why are the debates limited to the candidates of the two party coup d'état?

Because the Republican Party and the Democrat Party set the rules after taking over from the League of Women Voters.

And that is not a conspiracy?

 

[Leweman]

Is he also going to debate Harry Reid on his budget?

 

[there4eyeM]

Why are the debates limited to the candidates of the two party coup d'état?

The debates are between the two who top the polls. If you want someone else, support them, if enough people do, that person will be in the debate and one of the others will be out.

And that is democracy?!

 

[PredFan]

Ralph Nader has sent Paul Ryan three letters requesting a debate on the Ryan Budget.
Paul's "too busy" to defend his budget in front of millions interested American voters on national television.

Heeeere's Ralph:

"Very well, Mr. Ryan, then why have you refused to civilly debate your proposals and their consequences with any of your critics inside and outside the Congress before a national television audience?

"I requested that you have this important exchange in three letters (first,second,third). Finally, your office demurred on the grounds that you were too busy.

"Are you really too busy to debate your plan which has passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and has been generally endorsed by Mitt Romney?

"Or are you too fearful of trying to defend your numbers and their plutocratic values to the likes of Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

Ryan

A plan that had BI-PARTISAN support.

Nader's a senile old fool.

 

[Leweman]

Why are the debates limited to the candidates of the two party coup d'état?

The debates are between the two who top the polls. If you want someone else, support them, if enough people do, that person will be in the debate and one of the others will be out.

And that is democracy?!

No but it's there is a limited amount of time and resources. No sense in wasting them on someone who is irrelevant. It's unfortunate.

 

[PredFan]

Who in their right mind would want to waste their time debating Ralph Nader!

Is he still alive????

Nah, he's been dead between the ears for decades.

 

[georgephillip]

Why would anyone care how someone not running for President debates?

What about others who are running for President?

"Jill Stein, the Green Party's 2012 presidential candidate, was arrested in Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon during a bank protest sit-in."

Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Arrested at Bank Protest | Common Dreams

Would you care to share who you'll be voting for?

Ive never made my support for Romney a secret. Ive supported him since the 2008 campaign, though i did question whether i still was going to this year early on.

Still doesnt change the fact that it seems pointless for a candidate to debate someone not running. Doesnt help the campaign at all.

I don't see how "helping the campaign" is the important issue here.

If Paul Ryan can't defend his budget against charges like those coming from David Stockman, Paul Krugman, and the Urban Institute then his campaign doesn't deserve help or support from anyone except the 1% and others blinded by ideology.

Ryan

 

[georgephillip]

Is he also going to debate Harry Reid on his budget?

That debate should take place between Harry and any conservative Economist you care to name.
Thomas Sowell?

 

[Dot Com]

Why are the debates limited to the candidates of the two party coup d'état?

Another reason the League of Women Voters got out of the debating business. They used to oversee the debates until they saw how exclusionary the two parties wanted to keep them.

 

[there4eyeM]

The debates are between the two who top the polls. If you want someone else, support them, if enough people do, that person will be in the debate and one of the others will be out.

And that is democracy?!

No but it's there is a limited amount of time and resources. No sense in wasting them on someone who is irrelevant. It's unfortunate.

Not jumping on the poster; I realize this is the rational. It is at the same time anti-democratic. Minority voices should be heard. In France, all the presidential candidates got time and were heard, from real communists (more than one party) to real right wing, quasi-fascists. Little France has time and resources for democratic debate, but not the rich old US of A?

No, that is a conspiracy!

 

[georgephillip]

Ralph Nader has sent Paul Ryan three letters requesting a debate on the Ryan Budget.
Paul's "too busy" to defend his budget in front of millions interested American voters on national television.

Heeeere's Ralph:

"Very well, Mr. Ryan, then why have you refused to civilly debate your proposals and their consequences with any of your critics inside and outside the Congress before a national television audience?

"I requested that you have this important exchange in three letters (first,second,third). Finally, your office demurred on the grounds that you were too busy.

"Are you really too busy to debate your plan which has passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and has been generally endorsed by Mitt Romney?

"Or are you too fearful of trying to defend your numbers and their plutocratic values to the likes of Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

Ryan

A plan that had BI-PARTISAN support.

Nader's a senile old fool.

"Just one day after Congress concluded its fight over this year’s spending, the House voted 235 to 193 to approve the fiscal blueprint for 2012 drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Budget Committee..."

"Not a single Democrat voted for the proposal, which will effectively serve as the House Republican bargaining position in talks with the White House and the Democratic Senate over how to reduce annual federal deficits and the accumulated national debt. Four Republicans also voted against it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/us/politics/16congress.html?_r=1

Depends on how you're defining BI-PARTISAN, I guess.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Ralph Nader has sent Paul Ryan three letters requesting a debate on the Ryan Budget.
Paul's "too busy" to defend his budget in front of millions interested American voters on national television.

Heeeere's Ralph:

"Very well, Mr. Ryan, then why have you refused to civilly debate your proposals and their consequences with any of your critics inside and outside the Congress before a national television audience?

"I requested that you have this important exchange in three letters (first,second,third). Finally, your office demurred on the grounds that you were too busy.

"Are you really too busy to debate your plan which has passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and has been generally endorsed by Mitt Romney?

"Or are you too fearful of trying to defend your numbers and their plutocratic values to the likes of Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

Ryan

Maybe Ryan doesn't want to make Nader look even dumber than he already does.

Nader isn't offering himself as Ryan's antagonist.
How about David Stockman?

"'In short,' wrote Stockman in The New York Times, 'Mr. Ryan’s plan is devoid of credible math or hard policy choices…. Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan have no plan to take on Wall Street, the Fed, the military-industrial complex, social insurance or the nation’s fiscal calamity and no plan to revive capitalist prosperity – just empty sermons.'”

Or Paul Krugman?

"... Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

"Would you be interested in hearing Ryan's responses to this Urban Institute claim in front of millions of US voters?

"His 'block grant plan alone would lead states to drop between 14 and 27 million people (the poor and those with disabilities) from Medicaid by 2021,' according to the Urban Institute."

Ryan

Stockman? The guy that went to divinity school? Do you seriously think he can go up against a guy with a degree in economics?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Paul Krugman is the funniest read since Larson stopped doing "The Far Side"

 

[Unkotare]

Ralph Nader is still begging for attention? That's sad. He should be off somewhere playing shuffleboard with Ron Paul.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Paul Krugman is the funniest read since Larson stopped doing "The Far Side"

Krugman has become unhinged. He is funny these days, in a shrill, panicked sort of way.

Ryan would be stupid to debate him, but mocking and publicly ridiculing Krugman could be fun.

 

[georgephillip]

Maybe Ryan doesn't want to make Nader look even dumber than he already does.

Nader isn't offering himself as Ryan's antagonist.
How about David Stockman?

"'In short,' wrote Stockman in The New York Times, 'Mr. Ryan’s plan is devoid of credible math or hard policy choices…. Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan have no plan to take on Wall Street, the Fed, the military-industrial complex, social insurance or the nation’s fiscal calamity and no plan to revive capitalist prosperity – just empty sermons.'”

Or Paul Krugman?

"... Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who has called the Ryan budget 'the most fraudulent in American history'”?

"Would you be interested in hearing Ryan's responses to this Urban Institute claim in front of millions of US voters?

"His 'block grant plan alone would lead states to drop between 14 and 27 million people (the poor and those with disabilities) from Medicaid by 2021,' according to the Urban Institute."

Ryan

Stockman? The guy that went to divinity school? Do you seriously think he can go up against a guy with a degree in economics?

Stockman's not my first choice...

"(Richard D.) Wolff earned a BA magna cum laude in history from Harvard in 1963 and moved on to Stanford—he attained a MA in economics in 1964—to study with Paul A. Baran. Baran died prematurely from a heart attack in 1964 and Wolff transferred to Yale University, where he received a MA in economics in 1966, MA in history in 1967, and a PhD in economics in 1969. As a graduate student at Yale, Wolff worked as an instructor.[1] His dissertation, 'The Economics of Colonialism: Britain and Kenya,'[2] was eventually published in book form in 1974."

Richard D. Wolff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Think Ryan would show up?

 

[Avatar4321]

I don't see how "helping the campaign" is the important issue here.

If Paul Ryan can't defend his budget against charges like those coming from David Stockman, Paul Krugman, and the Urban Institute then his campaign doesn't deserve help or support from anyone except the 1% and others blinded by ideology.

Ryan

I dont know, maybe because we are having a Presidential race.