Leading is about making choices. What do you make of these choices?
On June 16 2011, U.S. Representative and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan voted in favor of H.R. 2112, a bill cutting funding to the WIC program. The WIC program provides food to poor and hungry pregnant women so that the fetuses growing within them can grow into healthy children and productive adults. It is an investment in our nation’s future that while relieving suffering also cuts long-term costs. Research shows that infants and young children who have suffered from poor food availability end up sicker and are hospitalized more, leading to huge. The WIC program is both humane and fiscally smart. But Paul Ryan voted to cuts its funding by $650 million.
Just a few months before, on February 15 2011, Paul Ryan voted down the Gutierrez Amendment, which would have cut the $415 million annual V-22 Osprey aircraft program and moved those funds into the Defense Department’s spending reduction account. The Osprey is a classic case of too much money pursuing too little function — costing $120 million per plane at its peak, the V-22 keeps crashing, frequently killing its occupants due to its lack of decades-old safety features and failure to tolerate common conditions in current wars. The Pentagon itself sought to cut funding for the program, but Congress continues to vote it forward because production is distributed strategically across a number of members’ districts and because the military industry funnels huge amounts of campaign cash into members’ coffers. Paul Ryan is the recipient of thousands of dollars in campaign payments from Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron, the two corporations that manufacture the V-22 Osprey. Paul Ryan is not the recipient of thousands of dollars in campaign payments from pregnant women in poverty.
Paul Ryan voted to cut $650 million in food for hungry pregnant women, even though the investment pays off. Paul Ryan voted to protect $415 million in funding for a bloated aircraft that crashes, even though the Pentagon asked for a funding cut. Now Mitt Romney has chosen Paul Ryan as his vice presidential pick, putting him a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Leading is about making choices. What do you make of these choices?
