With just a few weeks left until the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney chose Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to be his vice presidential candidate. Ryan, now serving his seventh term in the House of Representatives, is most well-known for his controversial plan to balance the nation’s budget. Ryan’s conservative position on issues will do little to win over independent voters.

Only 8 percent of voters are undecided, according to Gallup. Other polls also show there are fewer undecided voters left. Compared with last year at this time, Gallup reported 11 percent of likely voters were undecided. These voters are important because they will help decide who wins. The country is fairly evenly split between Romney and Obama.

Unfortunately for Romney, Ryan’s views will not help gain any of these voters. Ryan’s budget plan is one of the easiest ways to observe his values and priorities. The plan is most widely known for cutting spending on programs benefiting the poor and middle class. He plans to spend 16 percent less than Obama in this category. The plan will also make cuts to transportation, education and science funding.

Ryan would not have to cut funding for food stamps if he and others in the House made a greater effort to inspire job growth. While he and Romney lament the country’s dependence on the social welfare, there’s little being done to reduce the growing number of people who depend on it. Reducing spending on programs to benefit the poor and middle class does not solve the larger underlying problem of a population unable to afford the basics.

In “Young Guns,” a book Ryan co-authored, he worries “we will become a culture in which self-reliance becomes a vice and dependency a virtue; a place where so many American are dependent upon government that our country comes to reject individual initiative, entrepreneurship, and opportunity that made us great.”
Ryan’s budget also makes changes to Medicare and Medicaid because he believes the programs will be unsustainable in the future. Under the plan, participants would receive vouchers to spend on private health insurance. The plan drastically changes a feature of our government that is costly but overwhelmingly popular. The desire to change Medicare may cause undecided voters not to support Romney and Ryan.
Like Romney, Ryan talks about cutting government spending but refuses to cut defense spending – a category which accounts for the same amount as spending on health care: approximately 25 percent of a nearly $2.5 trillion budget. He only cares about select categories of excessive government spending.

Obama called Ryan’s budget “an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism.”
The success of Obama or Romney will partially depend on their abilities to inspire dedicated supporters. Ryan will only help Romney by adding much needed personality and disdain for Democrats and Obama. Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman, reports a spike of $3.5 million in donations within 24 hours of announcing Ryan as the vice presidential candidate.

The two campaigns may decide to stop trying to convince undecided voters but will do so at their own risk. Ryan is unlikely to attract voters who want to see a policy that satisfies both parties and the country overall. Ryan may inspire Republicans to vote but will add little else.

Harmen Rockler is a senior newspaper journalism and political science major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at horockle@syr.edu.

Published on August 12, 2012 at 2:50 pm