Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to name Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate on Saturday, multiple sources report. Ryan’s selection would signal that Romney seeks to double-down on his position on austerity as he bids for the White House. In 2012, Ryan introduced to the House of Representatives a proposed budget which would have reduced all discretionary spending from 12.5% of GDP in 2011 to 3.75% of GDP in 2050.
Ryan’s 2012 budget received lukewarm reception in the House and was defeated in a bipartisan vote against it. Civic groups also raised concerns with Ryan’s budget. The Catholic Church, specifically the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and faculty and administrators of Georgetown University, sounded the alarm. In its letter to Rep. Ryan, a group of Georgetown faculty and administrators criticized Ryan’s 2012 budget as trying to “to dismantle government programs and abandon the poor to their own devices.” The letter went on to say that Catholic teaching “demands that higher levels of government provide help—”subsidium”—when communities and local governments face problems beyond their means to address such as economic crises, high unemployment, endemic poverty and hunger.” The group also criticized Ryan for seeking to gutting government programs” and stated that Ryan is “profoundly misreading Church teaching.”
A Republican official said Romney would introduce Ryan at the retired battleship USS Wisconsin – coincidentally named for Ryan’s home state – in Norfolk at about 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).
The announcement marks the end of a months-long search for a running mate to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the November 6 election, and will serve to energize conservatives who staged a big effort in recent days to persuade Romney to pick Ryan.
It comes as Romney starts a bus tour on Saturday through four battleground states he needs to win in November – Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.