Activists Bash Paul Ryan’s $350 Pinot Splurge with Faux Wine Tasting

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5446298349/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Gage Skidmore</a>/Flickr

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GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, the wonky Wisconsinite who has proposed privatizing Medicare and cutting other entitlement programs, was left red-faced a few weeks ago when he was spotted sharing two $350 bottles of wine at a posh French restaurant in Washington, DC. His drinking buddies: famed hedge fund “whiner” Clifford Asness and University of Chicago economist John Cochrane.

An embarassed Ryan told Talking Points Memo, which broke the story, that he didn’t know how much the wine had cost, and said he wouldn’t buy it again if given the choice.

But that wasn’t the last word on Ryan’s spending spree. On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Republican’s constituents gave him a taste of his own Pinot, staging a faux wine-tasting protest at Ryan’s office in Racine, in southeast Wisconsin, to highlight what they saw as the congressman’s stunning hypocrisy. “The symbolism of Paul Ryan sipping outlandishly expensive wine at fancy Washington bistro is in many ways more powerful than all the devastating statistics about his plan to destroy Medicaid and Medicare as we know them,” Robert Kraig, the executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said in a statement. “Ryan’s plan shifts precious public resources needed to make good on our national commitment to fund Medicaid and Medicare to the very people who can already afford to drink grossly overpriced wine—the wealthy and health insurance industry CEOs.”

Here’s a video of the protest:

Paul Ryan Wine Tasting Protest at Racine Office, Tuesday July 19th from Matt Brusky on Vimeo.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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