The Morning Joe set went silent after watching a clip of Paul Ryan stumbling his way through a Tuesday interview with Fox News.
Asked about the $700-billion Medicare cut accusation that the Ryan-Romney ticket has lobbed at the Obama administration (read Ezra Klein for further clarification), Ryan said that the Romney-Ryan ticket does not want to make cuts to Medicare.
"That [Romney-Ryan] ad attacks President Obama for the Medicare savings that are contemplated in Obamacare estimated now at over $700 billion dollars. Doesn't your budget also contemplate very major savings from Medicare on something like the same amount?" asked Fox News interviewer Brit Hume.
"Only President Obama raids $716 billion dollars from the Medicare program; he cuts $716 billion from the Medicare program to pay for Obamacare," Ryan replied. "We don't do that."
Hume went back for more, though: "You make savings. How much?" he pressed.
"The point is—we, we—I joined the Romney ticket," Ryan replied. "And what Mitt Romney is proposing to do is to repeal all of Obamacare...including this cut of $716 billion...We want to restore those cuts."
"So you don't contemplate making any savings in Medicare?" Hume continued.
"We will make savings in Medicare for the next generation but what we're proposing is strengthening it for current seniors," said Ryan. "We don't take more cuts to Medicare."
Hume switched tactics.
"The budget plan you're now supporting would get to balance when?"
"Well, the budget plan that Mitt Romney is supporting gets us down to 20% of GDP government spending by 2016," Ryan said. "That means get the size of government back to where it historically has been."
"I get that but what about balance?"
"Well I don't know exactly when it balances because—I don't want to get wonky on you, but we haven't run the numbers on that specific plan," Ryan said.
Cue silence from the Morning Joe panel.
Finally host Joe Scarborough breaks it up with a laugh: “You know, because I hate when people get wonky on me."
"You know what I hate more? When they don’t run the numbers,” co-host Mika Brzezinski lobbed back.
“Paul Ryan, before he was selected [as Mitt Romney’s running mate] was so fluent in matters of the budget, he’s sitting trying to recall what he’s supposed to say, what he’s been programmed to say about the Romney budget," added co-host Willie Geist.
The panel pointed out that part of Ryan's struggle is that "Paul Ryan knows what's in his plan, but we don't know what's in Romney's plan."
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Correct, we do not know what's in Romney's plan, and we won't know until after the election. "Vote for me, then you'll see what I'll do, but I'm not going to tell you ahead of time".
I've been watching politics for some 40 years and I've never seen such a discombobulated campaign, so intent on vague talking points and lack of detail. Romney whines about every negative thing said against him, when in fact he ran a filthy campaign against his primary opponents, and when in fact, that's what campaigns are about. This is big boy politics and ROmney seems unable to handle the pressure of it. The audacity and arrogance of a candidate to say he won't tell us about his tax plan til after election is stunning. He's cracking, and his stump speech about "Obama's campaign of hate" blah blah blah made him look desperate and whiny. He hides behind his wife, and in the clip of her refusing once again to release any tax returns, she too looks very angry, stressed out and whiny....."No, 'you people' will just pick them apart like you always do!". Uh, yeah, Ann, that's why tax returns are released, to be picked apart. Here's the telling part: if they have nothing to hide, they should be ecstatic to release them and let a whole bunch of Dems WASTE their time picking them apart.
Not only does Romney put his poor wife out there run interference for him along with those in his campaign, I am still finding it hard to believe that he had his poor son call the other VP candidates that were in consideration to tell them they were not going to be picked! I don't exactly call that Leadership!
Not only does Romney put his poor wife out there to run interference for him along with those in his campaign, I am still finding it hard to believe that he had his poor son call the other VP candidates that were in consideration to tell them they were not going to be picked! I don't exactly call that Leadership!
poor wife and poor son? really. POOR?..mitts family knows what they are doing. it is after all, their turn.
it's called deflection. As in "I'm rubber, you're glue, what bounces off me sticks to you." Which pretty much shows what they think of the mental capacity of those likely to vote GOP.
The reason Medicare is a top topic of the election is it is costing more then it takes in, while people are pushing for government to stop spending so much, all areas need to be addressed while the Republicans have pushed for cuts, approved and then passed the cut. One thing is sure Obama is serious about cutting the nations debt while the Republicans are seriously pushing for higher spending in the defense area. Considering the Iraq war is now over one would think money can be shaved off the defense bill. Plus lowering the taxes on anyone would add to the deficit as it has yet to produce jobs or higher revenue. Sorry seriously
I was watching Morning Joe this morning and i could not believe what i was watching and hearing. Whenever you get Joe to be quiet for one minute is feat in its self. I have never witness a ticket so unprepared for the big show as he Romney/Ryan ticket. Whomevr wants these guys to run this great country really needs to have there head examine.
Lorrie A points out that the military budget needs to be reduced and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta have long ago proposed cuts in military spending. The reasons that the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense have proposed cuts are because the war in Iraq is over with and the war in Afghanistan is soon to wind down. The Pentagon proposal in a nutshell is to demobilize about 80,000 Army troops and about 20,000 Marines along with other cuts in programs specifically set up for the wars. The troop levels in the Army and the Marine Corps are at about the same levels of that they were before 9-11. We are looking at about 500,000 officers and soldiers and about 180,000 Marines. These numbers are round numbers and are in a state of flux so no doubt a researcher could find more accurate ones but the general trend is towards these figures.
The Pentagon is implementing this reduction plan because it has extremely serious problems caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Much of the equipment in the active components is very old and worn out. Many Abrams tanks are 20 or 30 years old. New Navy ships are becoming exorbitantly expensive with the fleet having aging warships averaging 20 years old or older. The Air Force has many old F-16 and F-15 jets that are approaching the end of their working lives having been designed back in the 1960's and built in the early 1970's. The Navy's F-18's are also showing age after hyper-usage. The money to replace these old weapons systems is tight. The money for new weapons programs is even tighter with new ships, planes, military vehicles going up and up in costs. For instance, many mechanized infantry units on FT Hood have Paladin artillery pieces that are 30 years old or older. Officers at FT Hood joke privately about being curators for the largest military history museum.
The situation for the Guard and Reserve is even worse with 40 year old trucks the norm. All of these problems have been exacerbated by the high operations tempo during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Most Guard and Reserve units would not be able to mobilize for their wartime missions because of deficiencies in equipment, personnel, and general maintenance of their mission essential equipment. Inspector General reports from four and five years ago pointed to the bleak statistics in Guard and Reserve unit readiness. About 90% of Guard or Reserve units would be unable to perform their wartime missions if called up for a national emergency. Peacetime budget cuts only exacerbate the problems faced by these Guard and Reserve units facing the left over costs of war. A lot of times the toughest battles military officers have to fight are the battles on the home front with inadequate resources, worn out equipment, lack of experience personnel, and low levels of training proficiency in units where veteran NCO's and officers leave the military or retire after the stress of two wars in ten years.
George Bush helped create the hollowing out of the Army that we have today. The only reason the problem is not more acute is that the economy is so bad many soldiers are reenlisting in the service because civilian jobs don't exist at home. What I am trying to say here is that many journalists in the media are not reporting this problem of lack of resources in the Guard and Reserve especially. The Republicans gave out huge tax cuts under George Bush when they should have passed income tax surcharges to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan will cost $4 trillion long term according to Professors Linda Bilmes and Joe Stiglitz.
Source: Joe Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. 2010. "The True Cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond." Washington Post. "...www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302200.html."
This lack of leadership on part of the Bush administration has really helped reduce our military readiness to dangerous levels. God damn it if you are going to have a military that is going to go deploy all around the world and tell everyone what to do so your oil can get secured then you need to raise taxes on the public and the rich so that it can be paid for. The maturity level of many in the Republican party and more than a few in the Democratic party about what the real costs are for things is about like children on the playground. As a very mature retired veteran I am really turned off by how many people in the society are so grossly uninformed about the state of readiness of our military units because of the 10 years of warfare we have engaged in. The American media is pathetic and I think many journalists are lazy and do not dig for facts anymore. If a journalist would go to Guard or Reserve units, get sources, talk to the officers and NCO's you would very quickly get a tale of disturbing news. George Bush turned the U.S. military into a giant worn out junk heap and there is no real plan to pay for it either. This state of ignorance is dangerous and reckless because we are much weaker than we think military wise. Task Force Smith in Korea was born from such an environment.
What would I do if I were in charge as a solution? We need another commission of experts to study how to refurbish our entire military after ten years of war. All of our old equipment needs to be replaced. We should be having no idle industrial plants right now because military orders could keep them busy for years. I would raise taxes on the rich, close all offshore tax shelters, eliminate all corporate tax loopholes, and pass laws that would encourage corporations to buy government bonds for getting the Guard and Reserve all new equipment. I would also propose another round of BRAC (base realignment and closing commission) that would close extra military bases. The active duty forces are hurting almost as bad as the Guard and Reserve units. These are just suggestions from a retired veteran. But out country's military has been driven into the ground by the Bush administration. Nobody seems to be talking about this important subject so I guess I will have to do it for the lazy media that is more concerned with ratings than substantive issues.
AMEN. I cannot tell you how many times I run into folks who take a stance on everything based on what FOX news (or some friend or family member who gets their opinion from there) says.
When I try to say how important it is to be inform with actual facts, they want to say that the facts are someone else's opinion, even if it's not... I make a point of looking up the facts and even when I show them to someone like that, it doesn't matter. People are hurting and it seems easier to just blame the OTHER (basically, any one or any thing that doesn't fit into their world).
Here is a statement made by Lt General Blum, then Chief of the National Guard, in 2008, that the Guard and Reserve were in the worst state of readiness in 35 years. The Guard since then has only deteriorated further. Several reports also state that 90% of Guard and Reserve units would be unable to respond to a natural disaster effectively because of lack of serviceable equipment, lack of personnel, lower levels of training, and equipment that is missing or simply worn out. Many active duty units are barely in any better shape.
Source: Unsigned. 2008. "A Breaking Military." Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "....iava.org/files/Breaking_Military_Quickfacts_0.pdf