Republican proposals to cut the size of government drew the condemnation of the American Federation of Government Employees today, which claimed that practically all “government services would simply cease to exist” under Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

The union fears that Republicans “would arbitrarily downsize the federal workforce, [and] dismantle Medicare and Social Security,” among other things.

“The GOP platform makes ‘government’ out to be a dirty word, and that is a shame,” said AFGE president President J. David Cox Sr. “Government employees run the best health care system in the world, treating returning soldiers at VA medical centers across the country. Government employees ensure millions of Social Security checks get processed and delivered to senior citizens every month. Government employees inspect meat, poultry and eggs as they move from the farm to your dinner table, so you know they’re safe to eat. Government employees guard our borders and our prisons so the streets are safe, and they support our warfighters at home and abroad.”

Cox’s claims cohere with those of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who recently branded the GOP the “E. coli club” as she claimed hyperbolically that Republicans don’t believe that there is any role for government whatsoever in American life.

Here is Cox’s full statement on the GOP platform:

The Republican Party’s 2012 platform comes as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. GOP leaders continue to promote the belief that government is to blame for all of the nation’s ills and that the solution lies in taking a hacksaw to federal programs that everyone in this country relies on. As this platform makes clear, a Romney-Ryan administration would arbitrarily downsize the federal workforce, dismantle Medicare and Social Security, outsource our national security to profit-driven private sector companies, reverse all of the steps that have been taken by the Obama administration to protect consumers from a repeat of the financial crisis that began under the Bush administration, and end vital regulatory functions that ensure the safety of our air, water, homes and worksites. The GOP platform makes “government” out to be a dirty word, and that is a shame. Government employees run the best health care system in the world, treating returning soldiers at VA medical centers across the country. Government employees ensure millions of Social Security checks get processed and delivered to senior citizens every month. Government employees inspect meat, poultry and eggs as they move from the farm to your dinner table, so you know they’re safe to eat. Government employees guard our borders and our prisons so the streets are safe, and they support our warfighters at home and abroad. Without proper staffing and funding, these government services would simply cease to exist, leaving millions of Americans high and dry. It’s hard for me to imagine a country that would turn its back on its citizens, but that’s exactly what this GOP platform proposes to do.