You have to wonder about the level of Mitt Romney's desperation to select Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate. By all accounts, Mr. Ryan seems like a nice all-American guy: former McDonald's employee, waiter, and personal fitness trainer. But all of these ordinary working class jobs Ryan held in his youth do not cover the fact that he is aiding and abetting the most extraordinary financial heist in U.S. history.

The author of the Ryan Budget, a scheme that House Republicans have voted for, Paul Ryan seeks to close the national debt by dismantling New Deal and Great Society systems like Social Security and Medicare that help the aged, disabled and infirm; cutting funding for education and other programs that help build the middle class; and reducing services for the children and the poor. In other words, tearing these systems apart brick by brick in the name of "fiscal responsibility." At the same time, the Ryan Budget gives more tax privileges to wealthy individuals and corporations. In short, his plan shifts public resources, including systems that workers have self-funded, from main street to Wall Street.