Politics & Government

Nickie Antonio, Local Seniors Speak Out Against Romney Pick

Obama campaign sets up press conference near the Barton Center to talk about healthcare coverage.

 met with organizers of the Barack Obama re-election campaign as well as with some Lakewood seniors to speak out against GOP candidate Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate.

More specifically, those speaking at Tuesday's event criticized "ending Medicare as we know it."

The press conference was initially slated to take place at the , however a hard rain scrapped those plans. Instead, a small group met near the entrance of across the street.

Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Here are Antonio's complete remarks: 

I am State Representative Nickie Antonio, and today we are here to discuss what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s plans for our country would mean for Seniors and Middle Class Ohioans. It is appropriate that we are here in Lakewood, Ohio home to one of the first federally subsidized senior housing projects in the country in the 1960s. We are concerned about the health and well-being of seniors in Ohio. 

Find out what's happening in Lakewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Romney-Ryan budget would devastate the security of senior citizens, ending Medicare as we know it and privatizing Social Security.

In naming Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his very flawed economic theory — it’s a theory that says you can give the wealthy budget-busting tax cuts and place greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, and somehow deliver a stronger economy as a result. 

Well guess what. We’ve already tried this theory, and it failed.  We’ve seen over the last decade that top-down, trickle-down, upside-down – whatever you want to call it, it just doesn’t work.

Paul Ryan is the architect of the radical House Republican budget – a budget that Mitt Romney has called “Marvelous.” 

The Romney-Ryan budget would give an additional $250,000 tax cut to millionaires.  Middle-class families could pay thousands of dollars more a year in taxes to help fund tax breaks for millionaires. So I guess this means  the Romney-Ryan budget is marvelous for millionaires but not the middle class or seniors.

Today, we are here to talk about what the Romney-Ryan plan would mean for the future of Medicare and Social Security.

Paul Ryan authored the plan that would jeopardize the future well-being of our country’s senior citizens – Paul Ryan would end Medicare as we know it and by privatizing Social Security, subjecting seniors’ retirement security to the whims of the stock market.  Ohio’s seniors cannot afford the Ryan-Romney Budget nor their extreme policies that could devastate the health and well-being of our community and communities across Ohio.


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