"Hustling For The 1 Percent"? Paul Ryan’s Vegas Meeting Picketed By Union Protesters

Hundreds of union protesters on Tuesday picketed a Las Vegas venue where Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate, was meeting with top campaign donors.

The protesters, who said they were from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, marched in circles outside the Venetian Hotel for more than an hour, while Ryan was meeting with casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and approximately three dozen other top donors.

AFGE is federal union representing 600,000 workers nationwide and overseas. The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers is a diverse union representing workers in the U.S. and Canada. Its workers are in areas such as construction, repair and maintenance, manufacturing and shipbuilding.

The unions are holding their annual conferences in Las Vegas this week.

While holding signs that read "Paul Ryan, Hustling for the 1 %," "Hands off my social security" and "End Tax Breaks for the Richest 2%," the protesters shouted for Ryan to "go home."

John Gage, AFGE president, told the media that they were protesting Ryan's proposed Medicare cuts and budget plan.

Ryan, who has served as chairman of the House Budget Committee since 2011, has been facing much heat because of his controversial budget plan, which includes a proposal to to reform Medicare.

Ryan's plan is to offer senior citizens a certain amount of money to spend on health insurance. This would be done through a voucher to be spent on private insurance or the government-run program. Under Ryan's plan, private insurers would be competing with the Medicare program and seniors would have to come up out of pocket with whatever costs would not be covered by the voucher.

Conservatives argue that there will be more efficiency under Ryan's plan while its critics say seniors will eventually be spending more.

"Romney Hood, Ryan Hood, not in our neighborhood," the protesters chanted, as reported by Buzzfeed.

Some told the Washington Post that the interest of the middle class wasn't factored in.

"Paul Ryan's out here and we're here to picket the 1 percent and his budget cuts," Florida nurse Donna Pixley, 46, told the paper. "He doesn't represent the best interest of the middle class. They're using government employees to fix the deficit. We didn't create the deficit."