Iowa crowd heckles Paul Ryan over Medicare cuts

Congressman Paul Ryan's first day on the campaign trail as Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick was met with angry shouts from Iowa residents.

"Are you going to cut Medicare?" shouted one Iowan. Another yelled, "Stop the war on the middle class!"

In the video of the Ryan Iowa campaign event, the candidate can barely be heard above angry shouts from the crowd.

This may be a sign of things to come all over the country, as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan try to sell their plan to eviscerate America's safety net programs to voters.

Making matters worse for the 2012 GOP presumptive nominees is the fact that despite privatizing Medicare and Social Security, the Romney-Ryan budget does not reduce the nation's debt for 27 years.

The savings from turning Medicare into a privatized voucher program are spent on more than $4 trillion in additional, unfunded tax cuts for the rich. Additionally, the Romney-Ryan plan makes the $4 trillion Bush tax cuts permanent – also unfunded.

The Ryan tax cut as laid out in his "Roadmap for America's Future" completely eliminates taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest. It also eliminates the estate tax. The changes would drop Romney's tax bill to virtually nothing.

"Since about 95 percent of Romney's $21.6 million income came from those sources in 2010, he would pay no taxes on the vast majority of his earnings," according to Roll Call.

It looks like Mitt Romney really wants to be president just so he can change tax laws to benefit himself, since the majority of Americans would realize no benefit from such a plan.

Selling a debt reduction plan that actually increases the nation's debt may turn out to be a tough sell, even to non-millionaire Republican voters.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 42 percent of those polled said Ryan was a "poor/fair" choice for Romney's running mate, while 39 percent thought the selection was positive.

While Ryan faced hecklers in Iowa, Romney tried to sway voters in Florida, avoiding detailed talk about dismantling Medicare. Romney did go after Obama, however. “The president’s idea, for instance, for Medicare was to cut by $700 billion. That’s not the right answer. We want to make sure we preserve and protect Medicare.”

The $700 billion Romney called a "cut" is misleading, since it is actually savings from making the program more efficient.

There is little doubt that the addition of Ryan to the Romney ticket will make the 2012 elections a referendum on Medicare, Social Security, and whether or not American's want to take on even more debt to give millionaires another tax break.

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