Ryan's recipe for ruin: All guns, no butter

The media picture of Vice Presidential pick Paul Ryan is that of a fiscally conservative budget cutter. All the attention is focused on how he will save trillions over the next decade by cutting medicare, medicade, social security and other vital threads of the social safety net.

Alas, that is only half the Ryan plan for America. He has spent 14 years in Congress voting to fund every dollar of our senseless trillion dollar wars of murder and mayhem in the Middle East that are bankrupting America while its infrastructure rots. The Ryan you never see resides deep within the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, defending every in-defensible weapons system regardless of how ineffective and unnecessary they may be.

The vast majority of Americans are unaware of his 2011 address before the Alexander Hamilton society in which he trumpeted need for American world wide hegemony, preposterously claiming the Obama administration has chosen for America to decline and let China and Russia lead the world. Ryan's budget proposals include increased military spending far above current levels while cutting money for state department diplomatic efforts and foreign aid not tied to rampant militarism.

Besides being foolhardy and self destructive, Ryan seeks to fund this guns only policy by cutting off the butter that nourishes the poor and rebuilds our crumbling infrastructure. Yet, talk of using domestic spending cuts to promote a bloated war and military budget never crosses Ryan's lips so there are none to read about this heartless slight of hand. But the ultra conservative crowd is jubilant over the prospect of a true all guns, no butter ideologue one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

The millions of folks in need who inexplicably find this prospect of a bleak American future appealing, better be thinking about their next meal and next medical crisis when they enter the voting booth November 6.