WaPost's Katherine vanden Heuvel NAILS Paul Ryan

WaPost opinionator Katherine vanden Heuvel leveled a powerful (and true) blast at the new GOP Veep candidate, Paul Ryan.  It's so excellent and so on target that I can't improve it, but I can put some of my favorite excerpts below.

Paul Ryan:  cruel, not courageous

1. " Ryan’s claim to courage — beating up on the poor notwithstanding — lies in his supposed willingness to tackle tough fiscal issues without obfuscation or sugar-coating. This would be admirable – if it were not utter nonsense. He preaches the need for austerity while refusing to touch defense spending. He doesn’t specify which tax loopholes would be eliminated to pay for massive tax cuts. He voted against stimulus to help the whole country, but for the auto bailout to help his own congressional district."

2. " Under Ryan’s plan, the wealthiest 1 percent would get a massive tax break. Meanwhile,  Medicare would be privatized, leaving seniors with vouchers that could never keep up with rising health-care costs. It would slash programs helping struggling families stay afloat, such as food stamps and housing assistance, by nearly a trillion dollars over the next decade. Education and employment training — vital to our nation’s future — would be cut by a third. Ryan, whose great-grandfather founded a large road construction company, would spend 25 percent less than President Obama rebuilding our deteriorating infrastructure. And since gutting Medicaid and Medicare isn’t enough, he would also repeal the president’s health-care law, leaving tens of millions of people uninsured."

3. " Recently, voters in focus groups refused to believe anyone would propose such a vicious plan.  Back when the GOP retained a modicum of humanity, even many Republicans were shocked by how far Ryan went. In polls, people of both parties recoil from his proposal to end Medicare as we know it."

So all I can say is:  BELIEVE IT.  And work to DEFEAT IT.