MASON CITY – A report by an east coast think tank claiming to outline the “real cost” of the Romney-Ryan policies to Iowans was released on Monday afternoon at the law offices of Tim Lapointe in Mason City.
“Iowans are tired of the ads and hungry for facts, and this report lays out the evidence behind the fact that Romney’s plan would mean higher taxes, tuition, and health care costs for middle class families,” said Tom Perriello, President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and point man for the report.
In attendance to listen to Perriello’s introduction of the report were Rep. Sharon Steckman and Sen. Amanda Ragan.
The report, “The True Cost of Romney-Ryan To Iowans” can be read online.
“This report highlights the fact that the Romney-Ryan plan will under-fund transportation and research, reward outsourcing, and ask struggling families and seniors to pick up the tab,” Perriello said. “Iowans deserve a just-the-facts tour that avoids the personality debates to focus on the practical impacts at the kitchen table.”
The Center for American Progress Action Fund launched Romney University this summer to inject facts and policy into the national debate. Over the past month, CAP Action has been touring the country – traveling to 9 states, reaching over 25 cities and meeting with community leaders – releasing state specific reports taking a close look at the costs each American will pay for Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) policies that ask the middle class to pay more so the wealthiest Americans and huge corporations can pay less.
Key findings of the report include:
- Middle-class Iowans would pay more in taxes while millionaires pay less. Millionaires in the state would receive an additional $87,000 in tax breaks under the tax plans of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan while middle-class families would pay up to $1,900 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their mortgages.
- Jobs would decline across Iowa. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan plan to provide extra tax incentives for corporations to outsource jobs and are pushing policy proposals to cripple the clean energy industry, jeopardizing 40,000 jobs across the state.
- Drastic cuts to federal spending would shrink Iowa’s middle class. The state stands to lose more than $23.6 billion in federal funding from 2013 through 2022, an average of more than $2.3 billion a year, from cuts to schools, law enforcement, highway repairs, job-training programs and more. These cuts would fall predominantly on middle-class and low-income families, especially cuts to education programs that would result in nearly $73 million in reduced federal support for education and job training in the state in 2013 and $169 million in 2014 alone.
- Seniors in Iowa would lose health care benefits and pay more. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would force seniors in the state to pay at least $585 more for their prescription drugs each year. At the same time, the Romney-Ryan plan to turn Medicare into a voucher would cost current seniors at least $11,000 more out of pocket.
- Women in Iowa would pay more for health care but receive less. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would once again allow insurance companies to charge women more than men while taking away preventive care from 520,000 women in the state.
- Young adults in Iowa would lose access to their families’ health insurance. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan promise to dismantle Obamacare, which would directly result in 20,000 young adults in Iowa losing the insurance they have today due to the Affordable Care Act.
CAP Action is also traveling to Des Moines, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City on the “True Cost of Romney-Ryan to Iowans” Tour.
Watch video:
httpv://youtu.be/E3zLzCuxLpg
Obama has everyone so worried about the cost of Romney’s plan, but has anyone figured out how much Obama’s spending plan will cost the average taxpayer? He has spent so much money, and plans to continue spending this much money, that no tax levied on the rich could ever fill the void. Anyone willing to guess where the tax bill will go then?
While I believe these reports hold water, as anyone rational would already know, but the report cannot educate people who are incapable of learning the truth
Andrew, don’t be so hard on people, they can’t help it.
This looks like something the Des Moines Register would try to pull off. There about at far left as any paper in the country. I wonder how much Obama is paying for this propaganda? He is one of the most crooked presidents we have had besides Nixon. Him and Holder should be in prison for giving guns to the Mexican drug cartel.
Too bad they didn’t launch Obama University. In reverse. Folks, we can’t afford all the crap Obama has promised. There IS no money for it. The last 4 years’ deficit spending has proven that. Things have to change. People with money write paychecks. Period.
A totally unbiased report. I believe every word. *insert eyeroll here*
Obama deadbeats are lining up at their mailboxes for their next round of checks from us that are willing to work for a living. Romney / Ryan 2013
Romney-Ryan a disaster for the middle class? How could they do any worse than Obama-Biden? Show us a president that has spent more money or taken more trips and had his family take more trips than the Obamas. They have made a bunch of fools out of the American people. He continues to send billions and trillions of dollars out of the country and the people in the United States need the help. If he gets in again, he will have to blame himself for the last four years instead of whining about Bush.
Maybe when and if all your dreams about a romney-ryan whitehouse come true, then you might want to believe these reports. The romney-ryan whitehouse would be a disaster for most middle income people regardless of political preferences.
Wow! Can Bob Fisher get any bigger??? Someone get that guy a treadmill.
Ah yes-another report from the Democrats about Romney. I don’t believe them or their leader Obama.
I agree with LVS. The president can’t spend money unless it is in the budget. Oh, right, there has been no budget for 4 years now. How many of you live with no budget?
The house has passed a budget every year and Harry Reid has blocked them from coming to a vote in the Senate every year.
We have billions of dollars thrown at “green” companies from this administration, (most of them Obama Donors,) that are out of business, another one of them went down just yesterday.