The best kept secret?
People are still talking about the decision made by former Massachusetts governor and perennial candidate for president Mitt Romney. The former governor puts his bets on Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan.
The Republicans are happy about the decision. The decision motivates the discussion squarely on the economy. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan introduced his controversial budget plan in which it called for major austerity cuts to social safety nets. It advocated for larger defense spending and it was passed by the Republican-controlled House and rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise was the Republican Party's budget proposal for the United States federal government in the fiscal year 2012. It was succeeded in March 2012 by The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal, the Republican budget proposal for 2013.
Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, played a prominent public role in drafting and promoting both The Path to Prosperity proposals, and they are therefore often referred to as the Ryan budget, Ryan plan, Ryan proposal, etc.
The plans stand in contrast to the 2012 and 2013 budget proposals, outlined by President Barack Obama and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The 2012 Republican proposal was formalized and passed by the House of Representatives on Friday, April 15, 2011 by a vote of 235 to 193, largely along party lines. No Democrats voted in favor of the bill, and only four Republicans voted against it: Walter B. Jones, Jr., David McKinley, Ron Paul and Denny Rehberg.
A month later, the bill died in the Senate by a vote of 57–40.
The 2013 proposal includes plans to eliminate Medicare and begin a voucher-like program, cap non-defense discretionary federal spending at $1.029 trillion, and consolidate the six existing income tax brackets into only two.
The Ryan plan is widely controversial. The plan is greatly rejected by the general public and yet, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan think the country would embrace this. The proposal broadly generated negative reactions from Democrats and positive reactions from Republicans.
The gloves come off after the Republican National Convention when Romney takes the nomination.
According to ABC News, Clandestine flights. A slight disguise. Long drives to out-of-the-way airports by an aide's 19-year-old son. An afternoon dash through the wooded ravine behind Paul Ryan's house in Janesville, Wis.
Beginning in April, Romney aide Beth Myers and a team of lawyers extensively vetted several possible vice presidential candidates, but, in the end, Ryan was only candidate Romney met in person to discuss the job.
From the start, Myers went to extraordinary lengths to keep the process secret. Her team worked in a secure room at Romney's Boston campaign headquarters. Each night they kept the most sensitive documents -- including several years of tax returns from each of the finalists -- in a safe. They made no copies.
"No copies were ever made and all work was done in that room," Myers said.
But it was Romney's final interactions with Ryan that were most elaborately shrouded in secrecy.
"We gave a lot of thought on how to make this work undetected," Myers explained.
It started on August 1, when Romney informed Myers that he had decided Ryan would be his running mate. Romney then called Ryan and asked him to come to Boston for a meeting on August 5.
Instead of flying directly to Boston, where he might be seen arriving in the city where Romney has his campaign headquarters, Ryan flew from Chicago into Hartford's Bradley Airport. To keep from being recognized, he wore casual clothes, a baseball hat and sunglasses.
"We sent my 19-year-old son to pick him up," Myers said.
Myers son Curt shuttled Ryan from Hartford to Myers' home in Brookline, Mass., driving the car right into her garage before Ryan got out. Ryan had lunch with Myers' family while Romney drove in from Wolfboro, N.H. -- also entering her home through the garage.
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