Democrats attack Romney's running mate Paul Ryan's 'extremist' budget proposal

Washington, Aug. 13 (ANI): A day after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, reactions have started emerging along partisan lines, with Democrats attacking his austere budget proposal in Congress.

Republicans praised Ryan's ideas and the energy he brought to the Romney campaign, while Democrats attached Ryan to the ideological extremes of the GOP.

David Axelrod, a senior member of President Barack Obama's campaign, said that Romney's pick of Ryan "was meant to thrill the most strident voices" in his party.

According to New York Daily News, Axelrod called Ryan a "right-wing ideologue" who "doesn't believe in medicare."

Democratic Florida representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who serves on the House Budget Committee with Ryan, also hit him on his Medicare proposal, saying that it is "extremist."

"By picking Ryan, Romney has embraced an extremist proposal," she said.

However, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who was said to be on Romney's shortlist of potential vice-presidential picks, said that the 42-year-old Ryan brings both 'energy' and 'an adult approach' to the Republican ticket.

Pawlenty defending Ryan's budget plan, called 'The Path to Prosperity,' said that it would replace Medicare with a voucher-based system, adding that it was a 'bipartisan' proposal that 'preserves Medicare and other programs for people who are on the program'. (ANI)