Republican Vice Presidential Pick Paul Ryan sold shares in a number of financial companies including Citigroup, General Electric, Wachovia, and JP Morgan Chase on the same day as then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke held a closed meeting with congressional leaders during the financial crisis.

At issue are the sale of troubled banks like Wachovia and Citi, as well as General Electric's struggling capital unit, dated on September 18, 2008 — the same day as the meeting with Bernanke and Paulson according to the Associated Press.
Ryan's 2008 financial disclosures, which are publicly available on OpenSecrets.org, were analyzed by Business Insider (Via The Richmonder).

The sales total as much as $60,000 — although they could be considerably less. The House disclosure forms do not require specific values from members.

OpenSecrets.org estimates Ryan has a net worth between $927,100 to $3,207,000.

Ryan's disclosure also shows the purchase of shares in Goldman Sachs, which was considered a relatively safer bank at the time.

Wachovia was later purchased by Wells Fargo after it neared failure at the end of 2008.
Attendance at closed door meetings are not tracked by the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, which keeps records of voting by members.

We've reached out to Paul Ryan's Congressional office to see if he was also at the meeting.
Other representatives have come under scrutiny for trading on non-public information during the crisis.
Earlier this year, Spencer Bachus of Alabama, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was cleared of insider trading by the Office of Congressional Ethics after it had opened an investigation of his dealings in financial securities.

In a McClatchy-Marist poll released this week, 70% of registered voters who identify with the Tea Party opposed making cuts to either Medicare or Medicaid — the government-run health programs for the elderly and the poor — to help reduce the nation’s deficit. Meanwhile, only 28% of tea partiers said they’d be willing to cut spending on those two programs.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/poll-70-of-tea-partiers-oppose-cuts-to-medicare-medicaid.php

A new survey of American suburban and swing voters by Hofstra University's National Center for Suburban Studies demonstrates just how mainstream the progressive vision for the country on the role of government really is. On issues of income inequality, the social contract, government regulation of industry for health and safety of the public, these swing voters demonstrate that, while they don't like these concepts in the abstract, they support the specific programs at issue, and want to keep them strong. This plays into the larger narrative that's at the heart of this campaign and the competing visions for what the role of government in our daily lives should be, and how Democrats and progressives should be presenting that vision.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/05/1116538/-Swing-voters-want-their-Social-Security-Medicare-and-good-government

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found last month that the Medicare provisions in the health care law would save $700 billion over a decade and extend the life of Medicare.

The cuts don’t target beneficiaries — they come largely in the form of reduced payments to hospitals, discounts on Medicaid prescription drugs, and pay cuts to private insurers under Medicare Advantage. The hospital and drug industries endorsed the law despite the cuts.

The Ryan plan, by contrast, would transform Medicare into a structure that rolls back the coverage guarantee for the elderly. In 10 years, the program would be replaced with a subsidy that beneficiaries can use to purchase insurance from a menu of private plans and a government option. CBO projects that in some cases, the subsidy won’t be sufficient to cover seniors’ medical expenses.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-obama-medicare-cuts-mitt-romney.php

Republican candidates should take note. Florida GOP voters don’t want you messing with either Medicare or Social Security benefits, according to a poll released Thursday by AARP.

“The message these voters are sending is clear: Do not cut the Social Security and Medicare benefits they’ve earned,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president, in a statement. “These findings demonstrate that strong majorities of supporters for every Republican presidential candidate oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.”

http://westorlandonews.com/2011/11/10/florida-gop-voters-say-dont-touch-medicare-social-security/

Voters don’t want their existing or future Medicare benefits cut even if it would help reduce the national debt, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill.

Fifty-three percent of likely voters say they would not accept the idea of reduced benefits, while 33 percent said they would and 14 percent were unsure.

Voters also were cool to a hike in the Social Security retirement age. Forty-seven percent of likely voters said they would oppose raising the retirement age for people who are now 55 years of age or younger, while 39 percent said they could accept an increase.

The findings cast light on the difficulties Republicans face in pressing for reforms to Medicare, a leading driver of the budget deficit, which is projected to hit a record $1.6 trillion this year. Other national polls have also suggested many voters oppose changes to Medicare.

http://thehill.com/polls/158509-voters-reject-medicare-cuts-to-reduce-deficits

“All we have to do is replace Obama. … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it”.

‘‘Mitt Romney refused to condemn Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and four other Republicans who have alleged that Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is part of a Muslim Brotherhood’.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/08/03/637861/romney-refuses-to-condemn-bachmanns-islamophobic-witch-hunt/

Mitt Romney refused to directly repudiate Donald Trump’s claims that President Obama was born in Kenya just hours before he is scheduled to appear with the reality T.V. star for a fund raiser in Las Vegas, NV. “A candidate can’t be responsible for everything that their supporters say,” Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom told CNN on Friday, before insisting that the former Massachusetts governor “accepts the fact that [Obama] was born in Hawaii.”

But Romney has previously demanded that his political opponents publicly rebuke supporters who make false accusations about Mormonism. In October, Romney aggressively confronted evangelical pastor and Rick Perry backer Robert Jeffress, who claimed that Romney is not Christian and is part of a Mormon cult. Romney called on Perry to denounce Jeffress.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/05/29/491391/romney-perry-trump/

Romney’s apoplectic response to Rosen’s comments contrasts starkly with his reaction following Rush Limbaugh’s sexist attacks on Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke.

Conversely, it took Romney almost three days, about 52 hours, to speak out against Limbaugh’s unquestionably more offensive message, despite being repeatedly asked about it on the campaign trail. Rather than lead the charge against Limbaugh, as he demanded Obama do against Rosen, Romney offered only tepid comments after most leading conservatives had already spoken out.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/04/13/464060/romney-rosen-limbaugh/

Romney failure to take the opportunity to denounce social conservative critics in the aftermath of Grenell’s appointment and his decision to keep the spokesperson under wraps during the anniversary of the Bin Laden capture, likely contributed to his decision to resign. As the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin reported, Grenell was upset that there was no public statement of support for him “by the campaign and no supportive social conservatives were enlisted to calm the waters.” An aide confirmed the campaign’s resistance to engage with conservatives to the New York Times.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/03/475881/fehrnstrom-grenell/

RICH LOWRY: –Republicans should go on offense on Medicare, because the president, as part of Obamacare, passed $700 billion in cuts in Medicare. And Romney wants to repeal Obamacare, including those cuts.

RACHEL MADDOW: Wait, wait. Hold on. Hold on.

RICH LOWRY: So it’s–

RICH LOWRY:–so at the top– hold on. So at the top of a ticket Romney versus Obama, there’s only one of those guys who wants any cuts affecting current seniors.

RACHEL MADDOW: Wait, wait. There’s–

RICH LOWRY: That’s not Mitt Romney.

RACHEL MADDOW : -Romney versus Ryan then. The Ryan plan keeps the Obama cuts for Medicare.

RICH LOWRY: The Ryan plan–

RACHEL MADDOW: So which one is it?

RICH LOWRY: –does.

RACHEL MADDOW:The Romney or Ryan plan?

RICH LOWRY: The Ryan plan does mostly as a matter of just preserving the CDO baseline. But the top to the ticket is Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney wants to repeal those cuts. And the fact is, Rachel–

RACHEL MADDOW: Wait, that’s amazing.

RICH LOWRY: The fact is, Rachel–

RACHEL MADDOW: –Romney versus Ryan–

RICH LOWRY: If the Republicans–

RACHEL MADDOW: –on Medicare.

RICH LOWRY: –were proposing–

RACHEL MADDOW: That’s going to be awkward.

RICH LOWRY: –$700 billion. Had passed $700 billion in Medicare cuts, you’d be savaging–

RACHEL MADDOW: Wait–

RICH LOWRY: –that president for their brutality–

RACHEL MADDOW: So what–

RICH LOWRY: –to seniors.

RACHEL MADDOW: –but you’re saying–

RICH LOWRY: And that is–

RACHEL MADDOW: Wait–

RICH LOWRY: –Barack Obama.

RACHEL MADDOW: Is Romney running on the Ryan plan or not? Is Romney accepting–

RICH LOWRY: He’s running on–

RACHEL MADDOW: He said that (UNINTEL) he–

RICH LOWRY: –his own version of those ideas.

RACHEL MADDOW: That’s amazing. Paul Ryan accepted the exact same cuts.

Ryan: “Most of our debt in the future comes from our entitlement programs.”

Senior citizen: “Hey, (Garbled; Ryan continues to speak). I paid into that for 50 years, my unemployment and my Social Security and my Medicare, and now you’re gonna…” At this point you hear the police who are dragging him out shouting, “on the ground, on the ground”.