Toronto, Canada – Wave Accounting, the disruptive creators of award-winning free small business accounting and payroll software, announced on September 11 the results of its small business opinion poll on the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. Wave polled the U.S.-based portion of the company’s more than 300,000 customers regarding their opinions on the candidates’ potential impact on small business.

Key findings include:

• On the question, “Who is better for small businesses,” 53% of respondents chose Romney/Ryan, 39% chose Obama/Biden.
• Reducing government red tape is the number one issue for Republican voting respondents, with an overwhelming 90% citing this issue as “crucial.”
• Among voters intending to vote Democrat, the most important issue is improving health care options for small businesses (77% called it “crucial.”)
• Size matters: Support for Romney/Ryan grows as company size grows. 47% of companies with 6-9 employees say they are definitely voting Romney/Ryan, vs. 45% among companies with 2-5 employees, and 43% among one-person businesses.
• Support for the GOP ticket is strongest in the South where 57% of businesses favorRomney/Ryan.

“These insights represent the real opinions of real small businesses in America,” said Kirk Simpson, CEO of Wave Accounting.

Recent “small business” surveys have included opinions from companies with hundreds of employees and many millions in revenue. Because Wave specializes in online solutions for real small businesses with 9 employees or less, the company can access key insights from a unique and significant segment of the market.

“This group makes up 95% of businesses in the U.S., yet their voices are badly underrepresented in media and politics,” said Simpson. “Their opinions and needs are interesting, in some cases unexpected, and deserve to be heard.”

The complete Wave Small Business Opinions Report — 2012 U.S. Presidential Election is available at www.waveaccounting.com/election2012.

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Las Vegas, U.S.A. — One thousand federal workers and union activists from the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO gathered outside a GOP fundraiser attended by Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan last night to draw attention to the devastating budget cuts that the congressman has proposed.

AFGE members, who are in Las Vegas for the union’s National Convention, joined with the Nevada AFL-CIO to protest outside the Venetian Hotel where Ryan attended a fundraiser sponsored by casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who has already donated $10 million to a political action committee supporting the Romney campaign.

As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Ryan authored a budget plan endorsed by former Gov. Mitt Romney that delivers more tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans while slashing vital federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Outgoing AFGE National President John Gage led the protesters in a chant denouncing the Romney-Ryan economic plan, shouting “Romney Hood, Ryan Hood, not in our neighborhood.” Union activists held signs reading “Paul Ryan: Hustling for the 1%,” “Romney/Ryan Road to Ruin,” and others.

“Governor Romney’s selection of Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate indicates just how much contempt this ticket will have for the federal workforce and the vital programs we deliver to the American public each and every day,” Gage said.

The grand economic recovery plan offered by Romney and Ryan is to deliver more tax breaks to the millionaires and billionaires, oil companies and Wall Street firms who continue to score record profits while the rest of the country struggles to recover, AFGE officials said. American companies would receive lucrative new tax incentives to move jobs overseas, worsening the employment prospects of the millions of Americans who remain out of work. And programs like Medicare and Medicaid, food inspections, veterans’ health care and so many others would see their funding slashed.

“We think the choice of Ryan, with his extremely specific anti-federal employee budget proposals, makes it crystal clear that the Ryan budget will be the plan for the Romney Administration,” AFGE Legislative and Political Director Beth Moten said.

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Obama’s campaign released a new ad called “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it,” which explains how the Republican ticket intends to transform Medicare into a voucher system and how Paul Ryan, as Mitt Romney’s running mate, will affect Romney’s success in key battleground states like Florida.

The Democrat’s strategy has focused on inspiring fear among Medicare beneficiaries. It has tried to convince them that if the Republican ticket gets into the White House they would end Medicare in its current form. They have also tried to make Paul Ryan look radical as an architect of a budget plan that would only affect the most vulnerable Americans.

The new Obama ad even had world-famous economist Paul Krugman state that if Medicare is replaced by a voucher system, millions of elderly people would not have the money to afford insurance.

The ad also suggests that Ryan’s plan to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security could hurt Romney in a state with a large retired population like Florida. The video also asserts that Romney lied when he declared that President Obama was the one who was really destroying Medicare to fund Obamacare by introducing Romney saying that Obama “has taken $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund to pay for Obamacare.” The ad shows a news anchorman saying that benefits to seniors have really increased during Obama’s legislation as proof that Romney’s statement is false.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, wrote a Townhall.com opinion article defending Romney and Ryan’s plan to save Medicare. Priebus wrote that, although Obama does not have a plan to save Medicare, he has taken billions of dollars from it to support Obamacare.

Priebus further explains that Medicare is predicted to go bankrupt in 2024 and the Democrats do not have a plan to save it, adding that they are using an old strategy to instill fear into the minds of senior citizens by lying about the Republican plans, hoping that the truth would not be known before the election.

But one thing that is clear about Ryan is that he has energized the Republican Party’s most conservative wing: 24 hours after his designation the Romney campaign had already received $3.5 million in online donations. And if Ryan could hurt Romney in some states, he would definitely help him in others. As a Tea Party member, Ryan would energize and mobilize Tea Party supporters in other battleground states.

Image Courtesy of   The White House’s photostream [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan as the Republican’s Vice Presidential candidate this Saturday. So who exactly is Paul Ryan, and what does this selection tell us about how the Romney campaign and the fight for the Presidency is shaping up to be?

Paul Ryan is the US State Representative for the state of Wisconsin, and also chair of the House Budget Committee. Over the past couple of years his plans for the US budget has been the subject of much conversation and controversy; he mostly talks up the need to cut debt and spending, and the way he seems to want to go about that is through slashing funding for welfare programs, among others. He’s very conservative politically and quite a favorite among the GOP.

Ryan seems to be widely considered very intelligent and competent. Many see him as a rising star, someone young and ambitious, and many have written about how he, in many ways, somewhat overshadows the actual presidential candidate, Romney. His plans are now what’s brought up whenever the policy of the republican presidential candidacy is discussed and he seems to be considerably more charismatic than Romney, who doesn’t seem particularly ideological or at least does not give off the impression of being genuinely passionate about ideology, and is seen as rather bland.

As someone who has made his name almost entirely on policy issues–namely his Ryan plan for the budget–there is widespread expectation that the conversations in this election cycle are finally going to go back to some talk of actual policy instead of mostly mudslinging and generally trying to point out what terrible people the other side are. Though that’s perhaps almost unrealistically optimistic.

Much like Romney and the current Republican Party, he’s anti-abortion and against gay adoption and gay marriage and has a fairly poor record for supporting women’s rights. He also supports further tax cuts for the rich and for businesses, and since taxes on the wealthy won’t be going towards cutting the debt in his plan, he intends on fighting the deficit by cutting government spending in welfare programs and education spending, which means the recipients of these welfare programs are going to be considerably worse off. Namely, the poor and seniors, whose medical care is paid for by the rather intuitively named Medicare.

These exact same stances are very similar to everything that the current Republican party seems to push for and that Romney has presented, so this was a VP pick that was reinforcing those ideas instead of trying to provide something different or appeal to a different angle or set of voters.

So what does this tell us about Romney’s campaign? Well, Romney could really have gone two different angles with his campaign now that he’s almost certainly going to be the Republican candidate for President to run against Obama. He could’ve tried to capture moderate voters who aren’t really very much on one side or the other, who almost undoubtedly, like everyone else in America, are unhappy with the economy as it is right now.

By trying to move a bit more from the right to the center and hoping that with the votes from conservatives and enough of a share from moderates, he could try to win the election. Along those lines, he could’ve even tried to reach out to groups rather alienated by Republican policies like women or Latinos.

However, Romney has never really been popular with conservatives who are the base of the Republican Party; when the primary elections to choose a party candidate to run for President were going on people, seemed to want any other choice, but all of the other options turned out to be too problematic for various reasons.

Earlier in his political career, when he was Governor of his home state of Massachusetts, Romney’s policies had been very different and not very right-wing, but now as he fights for the presidential nomination, he’s had to backtrack on a lot of it, and this gives the impression to a lot of conservatives that he hasn’t been conservative enough in the past. As a result, he’s not too popular among the conservative base.

So by choosing Paul Ryan as his VP pick, he has thoroughly burnished his credentials as a right-wing guy who’d bring about right-wing policy if elected President. This means Romney has decided that the support of an energized and enthusiastic conservative base could be more useful than attempting to win over moderates and risk losing support from the conservatives. Also, he’s doubled down on policies that would be useful to businesses and the rich–less regulation, lower taxes on them–so companies and the wealthy looking out for their own interests are more likely to back him.

Many average Americans are pretty apathetic about politics, an apathy that has only been increasing recently with widespread mistrust of all government. However, conservatives have been pretty fired up lately. He’s made the gamble that an enthusiastic base of people who are going to vote and fund a campaign, as well as guarantee lots of campaign funding from businesses and the rich to go towards ads and campaigning, is going to be more useful than hoping to get the more apathetic moderates to vote for him.

Voting isn’t compulsory in the US, so only 50-60% of eligible voters actually vote, and of course more dedicated groups are more likely to vote. Of course, now the Obama campaign will target those same moderates (already begun–the Obama campaign has been focusing a lot on how they would be so much better for the middle class and for women’s rights) because if enough of them care enough to vote, Obama has a pretty great chance of winning, but that’s the gamble Romney’s made now.

Will Obama be able to inspire those moderates enough to actually vote and convince them that voting for him would be good for them, or will lots of ads and campaigning funded by the wealthy and an enthusiastic base of conservatives who will definitely be going to vote when November rolls around, be enough for Romney to win? We’ll have to see how it plays out over the next three months.

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Since his designation as Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan has been under a lot of criticism from the Democrats, but his response has not taken long to be heard. In Iowa he criticized the way President Obama has handled the economy for the past four years.

This August 13 during Iowa’s rally, Paul Ryan was dressed for the occasion; he wore jeans, cowboy boots and a red and white checkered shirt. Since his nomination this was the first time Ryan campaigned alone, he was facing thousands of people, but he did well.

Recently in a political rally in Iowa President Obama made hard accusations against Ryan, saying that he blocked a farm bill that would benefit state farmers.  Ryan also had something to say to Obama during another rally in the key-state battleground of Iowa, accusing the president of “spending our children into a diminished future.”

Referring to Obama’s three-day visit to Iowa, Ryan stated: “As you see the president come through in his bus tour, you might ask him the same question that I’m getting asked from people all around America. And that is, ‘Where are the jobs, Mr. President?’” The fact that during his speech Ryan made a direct reference to Obama by suggesting the crowd that if they see the president, they should ask him about where the jobs are, is not a coincidence. President Obama did something similar during his Iowa rally. He told the crowd that if they saw Paul Ryan to tell him how important the farm bill was for Iowa’s rural communities.

Although Ryan made an outstanding appearance in Iowa, the rally was not easy. There were some protesters who interrupted him several times. They were claiming that Ryan was on war with the middle class, and tensions arose to the maximum point when a woman climbed into Ryan’s stage, but she was immediately taken by security forces.  Ryan, to try to cool things down, said that “she must not be from Iowa.”

Iowa is one of the swing states. Obama won it in the 2008 election, but in 2004 Bush won this state, so the Republicans are making a huge effort to regain it. Ryan did not talk about the reform he intends to make in Medicare. In recent days one of the most popular accusations made against Ryan is that he intends to transform Medicare into a voucher system, but in Iowa he did not talk about this controversial issue.

Paul Ryan also intended to avoid Obama’s accusations that he opposed a farm bill that would benefit the rural sector. He said that he “would get into those policy things later,” and stated: “Right now, I just want to enjoy the fair.” But Romney spokesman, Ryan Williams, defended Ryan and Romney on this issue, he stated: “The truth is no one will work harder to defend farmers and ranchers than the Romney-Ryan ticket.”

Image Courtesy of   love4utah [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, is the Republican leader on fiscal and budget issues; he is a seen as a “fiscal hawk.” Ryan is also very popular among the Republican’s most conservative voters.

Ryan is the designer of a new economic plan that intends to drastically decrease government spending, but Romney has taken his distance from Ryan’s plan, which some consider to contain draconian measures. Romney has announced that he respects Ryan’s plan but he has his own plan to reduce the deficit.

Sen. Rick Santorum, one of the nation’s conservative leaders, stated: “Congressman Paul Ryan is an outstanding choice as our country’s next vice president, and today’s announcement demonstrates Governor Romney’s commitment to returning fiscal sanity back to Washington.”

Romney referred to Ryan as a “faithful catholic” who is a supporter of the dignity of every human life. Ryan opposes abortion in all situations. He is definitely supported by the Republican’s most conservative base and would definitely energize them, as they have been very discrete in their support for Romney, and they are one of the Republican’s most important supporters. It is crucial for Romney to have them devoted to his cause in order to win this election.

The Obama campaign has already started to criticize the Republican candidates, claiming they want to take the country back to policies that have already been proven wrong.

The most important thing about Ryan is that he would reinforce Romney’s economic message. He is seen as an economic expert, the contrary of President Obama. That’s why is very important for the Democrats to show that his economic postures are radical and would only benefit the rich.

Obama’s campaign has released an article criticizing the “comeback team,” formed by Ryan and Romney. They explain that both of them support tax cuts for millionaires, that this will lead to tax rises for the middle class, and that the Republican candidates’ plan intends to cut investments in vital areas like education.

The Democrats also explained that Ryan’s budget plan intends to make Bush’s tax cuts for the millionaire permanent, and that he also intends to end Medicare as it is right now. They explain that Ryan’s plan would transform “Medicare into a voucher system which would increase seniors’ health costs by $6,350 a year.” Also, they claim he wants to privatize social security.

The other accusations the Democrats are making against Ryan is that he is a severely conservative man, who would take the country centuries back in reference to women’s health and equal rights. Obama’s campaign explains that Ryan co-sponsored a bill that intends to end in-vitro fertilization and other forms of birth control, and that he is also a supporter of letting states prosecute women and doctors involved in an abortion. They also accuse Ryan of opposing gay marriage.

These are some of the main accusations the Democrats have made against Romney’s running mate; they are trying to make him seem as an enemy of the middle class and women. His position on Medicare could cost the Republicans some votes from the elder people, but he would definitely reinforce Romney’s economic message and will gain conservative support for his position on some of the controversial topics.

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