Ryan's Moneymen

[Ian McColgin]

Published on Thursday, August 16, 2012 by WisconsinWatch.org

Big Money Ryan: VP Pick Funded by Goldman Sachs, Koch, Insurance Industry
by Kate Golden and Bill Lueders

Rep. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president,*may be the face of the Tea Party favorite caucus in Congress. But big business interests have also contributed mightily to the budget chairman’s campaign, according to analyses from the nonpartisan political money trackers at MapLight.

Wall Street, insurance, health care and pharmaceutical interests contributed the most to the Janesville Republican’s campaign from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011. Those corporate interests accounted for about $817,000 of the $3.2 million Ryan raised during this two-year period.

One of Congress’s top fundraisers, Ryan entered the current election cycle with more than $3 million cash on hand. He now reports having $5.4 million cash on hand in his congressional war chest.

Top organizations funding Ryan included Wisconsin insurers Northwestern Mutual and American Family Insurance, accounting firm Pricewaterhousecoopers, Goldman Sachs and Koch Industries.

Like many legislators, Paul Ryan — a career politician who is chairman of the House budget committee and also sits on Ways and Means —*raises plenty of money from the District of Columbia.

In MapLight’s most recent analysis, of data from 2005 to 2007, 65 percent of his contributions came from outside Wisconsin and 83 percent from outside his southeastern Wisconsin district. Donations from Washington and Virginia together accounted for more than those from Wisconsin.

Readers can explore the data at Maplight.org’s Paul Ryan page. The publicly available data is compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Members of Congress are not required to precisely disclose their personal wealth, other than to identify individual assets within set ranges. Ryan’s most recent disclosure, filed in May, puts him toward the high end of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.

According to this filing, Ryan has assets worth more than $2 million but less than $10 million. Much of his money is salted away in money markets, mutual funds and individual stock holdings. He has substantial investments in mining companies and Home Depot. He also reports having between $100,000 and $250,000 set aside in Edvest, a college savings plan.

Ryan reports owing between $250,000 and $500,000 for the mortgage on his Janesville home.

© 2012 Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

[skipper68]

In my email:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said, “I did not make a mistake with this guy.” Really?

Gov. Romney: Do you approve of Paul Ryan’s actions against the American family?

Paul Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. One in four children lives in single-mother families; one in two of those children is poor. But Paul Ryan voted against fair pay.

Paul Ryan voted against funding Planned Parenthood. Doesn’t he know that federal dollars cannot be spent on abortions? Paul Ryan voted against mammograms and Pap smears that get women early cancer treatment.

Paul Ryan’s budget would have handed millionaires an average of $265,000 each in new tax cuts on top of $129,000 from President Bush’s tax cuts. How? By cutting Pell Grants for college students and increasing taxes on low-income working families. By reopening Medicare’s doughnut hole in prescription coverage, stripping health coverage from many 65- and 66-year olds and creating a voucher system that buys less coverage with each passing year. I’ll be 65 in three years. You want to do that to me?

Thank you, former Gov. Romney, for showing what you really value. Not children, women, students, working families or seniors. Not me. Just right-wing cash cows. I may not “moo,” but my cash will support President Obama’s re-election!

BINGO!