The Obama pitch: Don’t ask us for a plan, just reject the GOP’s plan
With Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate, the entire presidential campaign will — or should — boil down to this exchange between Ryan and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during a House hearing on President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget back in February (text of transcript courtesy of Real Clear Politics):
Ryan: Here’s the point. Leaders are supposed to fix problems. We have a $99.4 trillion unfunded liability. Our government is making promises to Americans that it has no way of accounting for them. And so you’re saying yeah, we’re stabilizing it but we’re not fixing it in the long run. That means we’re just going to keep lying to people. We’re going to keep all these empty promises going.
And so what we’re saying is, in order to avert a debt crisis — you’re the Treasury Secretary — if we can’t make good on our bonds in the future, who is going to invest in our country? We do not want to have a debt crisis. And so it comes down to confidence and trajectory. Do we have confidence that we’re getting our fiscal situation under control, that we’re preventing the debt from getting at these catastrophic levels?
If we go back to the preceding chart, number 13, you’re showing that you have no plan to get this debt under control. You’re saying we’ll stabilize it but then it’s just going to shoot back up. So my argument is, that’s Europe. That is bringing us toward a European debt crisis because we’re showing the world, the credit market’s future seniors — people who are organizing their lives around the promises that are being made to them today — that we don’t have a plan to make good on this.
Geithner: Mr. Chairman, as I said, maybe we’re not disagreeing in a sense. I made it absolutely clear that what our budget does is get our deficit down to a sustainable path over the budget window.
Ryan: And then they take back off.
Geithner: Why do they take off again? Why do they do that?
Ryan: Because we have 10,000 people retiring everyday and health-care costs going up.
Geithner: That’s right. We have millions of Americans retiring everyday, and that will drive substantial further rise in the growth of health-care costs. We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.
Read that last part again: “We’re not coming before you to day we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.”
In other words, we prefer Nero-esque fiddling to your plan.
In other words, we’d rather stick to promises that can’t be kept than level with the American people and treat them like adults.
When Geithner admits the Obama administration has no “definitive solution,” what he really means is the Obama administration has no solution, no proposal, no plan, at least nothing it wants to talk about publicly, for keeping our fiscal condition from spiraling completely out of control. That’s no exaggeration: Check out the chart to which Ryan referred, which comes from the Obama administration’s own FY13 budget:
Our future under Barack Obama
See, the most Barack Obama is willing to do — in his fourth, count ‘em, fourth budget proposal — is to “stabilize” our debt at the highest level, as a share of the economy, since the end of World War II. In fact, according to his budget, that’s the most Americans can expect for the two presidential terms that would follow his hypothetical second term.
After that, he ostensibly would be willing to let us zoom into the abyss on auto-pilot than propose any sort of meaningful reform to the programs that put us on this path. That’s chiefly Medicare — although, as an Associated Press report notes, we face a shortfall of Social Security funding totaling $134 trillion during the next 75 years, i.e. the period of time that covers the retirement of “just about everyone working today.” To shore that up, AP reports, the federal government would need to “invest $8.6 trillion today, and have it pay returns of 2.9 percent above inflation for the next 75 years, to produce enough money to cover the shortfall.”
We will soon find out if the Obama team has prepared substantive proposals for these issues or was simply betting/hoping Romney wouldn’t have the guts to thrust Ryan — and thus the entitlements question — into this campaign.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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489 comments Add your comment
JF McNamara
August 13th, 2012
11:39 am
The Republican plan is holistic either and a lot of Ryan’s assumptions are flat out wrong. It doesn’t say what will be cut or have specifics.
If the plan is to ask the Obama for a plan, the reply will almost certainly be what specificially will you cut? Will that conversation turn out well for Romney or Ryan? When they say, “We plan to cut social security or the mortgage interest deduction”, is that going to win them votes?
Can’t Obama use the same tactic they’ve been using and call those “simplifications” raising taxes? How can the Republican Party, conditioned to hate all tax increases, go along with that?
In addition, the pessimism of this campaign will eventually catch up to them. Basically, their whole premise is to say angrily that America sucks and Obama is a failure. It’s not 2008. Things aren’t dire and most of our problems are years in the future. They’d better lighten up and get positive at least some of the time.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:40 am
Rafe
The electorate was real impressed with Palin, uh?
Guess you missed the election results.
you betcha
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:43 am
The debate moderators, will be unsuccessful in halting Obama’s filablustering. Their excuse will be, we wanted to be “respectful” of the President. Every time the subject is focused on his record, he will try and run out the clock and turn the topic into the GOP war on the environment or women or some side issue. Romney is going to have his work cut out, but if he stays on the offensive, he wins. If he falls for the rope a dope, he is sunk. He needs a knock out. Obama wins, if the judges get to decide, no matter who actually did the best.
Centrist
August 13th, 2012
11:43 am
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot
exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will
continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they
can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the
candidates who promise the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally
collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed
by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest
civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about
200 years.”
— Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor 1787
We have reached that tipping point. Only half of voters pay income tax with Obama wanting the professional class family wage earners to pay more. The size of government has exploded along with deficit spending and national debt.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:44 am
Rafe
speaking of excuses, you are making them now
just saying
The Artful Dodger (Myth Robme) Is A Ryan Shame
August 13th, 2012
11:46 am
@gadem
August 13th, 2012
11:34 am
HUH!? LOL!!! Palin did not was Biden…people were just happy Palin was able to walk and chew gum at the same time. If I remember correctly, she never answered questions directly. She talked about what she wanted to talk about regardless what the question was.
_______________________________
Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.
SARAH PALIN WAS NEITHER
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:46 am
Logical
As they say people vote for the Top of the Ticket. We let the media and the Dems pick our candidate. Palin was the only positive thing about the last race, if not for her, it would have been more of a landslide. Every time she tried to go after Obama, she was reigned in by McCain’s political experts.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:46 am
Rafe
Is so impressed because he has convinced himself over the last few years that Palin was
at him.
hahahahahaha
InAtl
August 13th, 2012
11:47 am
Obama in Chicago this weekend: “Do we go forward towards a new vision of an America in which prosperity is shared?” Obama asked. “Or do we go backward to the same policies that got us in the mess in the first place?”
And liberals wonder why people think he’s a socialist.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:48 am
“We let the media and the Dems pick our candidate.”
Actually the candidates are chosen during the primary process. Forget right or left. You are the biggest excuse maker for everything.
I hope you do not just make excuses for everything in your life and this is just a game you play when blogging.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:48 am
Logical
No excuses, just describing the environment Romney/Ryan will face, when they overcome great odds and kick butt in the debates.
Jefferson
August 13th, 2012
11:49 am
You folks better think about what you are going to do when you get old.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:51 am
Rafe
Amazing that you would admit how gullible you by saying you allow Fox to pick your candidate. What other things do they pick for you? Your dinner, your nose, your clothes
But to each his own.
have a great day
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:51 am
Logical
No excuses, just the facts. There were states where Dems crossed over and voted for McCain. He was the darling of the media, and he believed they loved him, so he played to them, only to be deserted when he got the nomination. I think he was actually dumb enough to believe the media would support him, to some degree, but boy was he fooled.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:52 am
Rafe
Bet you said the same thing last time
southpaw
August 13th, 2012
11:52 am
Artful Dodger @10:58 & 11:06
Voting for lots of government programs + doing nothing myself to help the poor = JUDGMENT. When Jesus gave His instructions to care for the poor, He was spending his time with the common people, not with the government leaders. When He did spend time with high-ranking officials (e.g. Pontious Pilate, the Sanhedrin), He said nothing about the poor.
Finn – You’re dead on about the need to pay for things as you go. I’m not so sure that your liberal brethren agree with you, but between liberals and conservatives, there’s plenty of blame to go around for everything that HASN’T been paid for. The free-wheeling spending has to stop. I like the odds of that better under Romney and Ryan than under Obama and Biden, but we’ll see what happens.
LtCol Razorback,
August 13th, 2012
11:53 am
Finally someone has made it clear why Obama must go and someone with a plan to solve our economic problems should take his place!! Anyone remember the promise that was made about Social Security? That each worker’s contribution would be held in trust to pay for his/her retirement? Then the deficits started mounting and what happened? Politicians too timid to give up their pet programs to balance the budget looked at the Social Security “Trust Fund” and decided to “borrow” money from it to balance the deficit, with no idea of how the “loan” would ever be paid back! I an approaching 66 years old and will start receiving Social Security payments soon, at least I hope to. Those payments won’t be my only retirement income because I have saved thru my 401K other monies; but at some point The Social Security money will run dry and then I’ll be in trouble. If I had been allowed to use the money I paid into Social Security for private investment, the problem would be greatly reduced, but nooo….if I had done that, my money would not have been available to pay someone else’s Social Security checks. So I paid, paid, and paid some more only to be at risk for getting little back for myself while someone else who failed to plan ahead benefited from MY money!
.
The Artful Dodger (Myth Robme) Is A Ryan Shame
August 13th, 2012
11:55 am
@Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer’s ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:43 am
The debate moderators, will be unsuccessful in halting Obama’s filablustering. Their excuse will be, we wanted to be “respectful” of the President. Every time the subject is focused on his record, he will try and run out the clock and turn the topic into the GOP war on the environment or women or some side issue. Romney is going to have his work cut out, but if he stays on the offensive, he wins. If he falls for the rope a dope, he is sunk. He needs a knock out. Obama wins, if the judges get to decide, no matter who actually did the best.
______________________________________________________
” Every time the subject is focused on his record, he will try and run out the clock and turn the topic ”
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:55 am
Rafe
If Romney wins, I hope he does a good job.
‘
But mark my words here today, you will be making excuses by the 1000s if Romney loses.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:56 am
Logical
Who said Fox picked my candidate. I don’t remember Fox being in the McCain stable.
Most of the Dems get their news from John Stewart and Stephan Colbert, who both fawned over McCain, as did Chris Matthews, until that tingle went up his leg.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 13th, 2012
11:57 am
“Today, after weeks of life, the Romney Tax Returns,”what does he have to hide?”and Offshore Hundreds of Millions he is “hiding” is still an issue.”
Only in the media.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
11:57 am
Logical
If Romney loses there are no excuses, just the facts, that the takers have finally out numbered the makers.
JF McNamara
August 13th, 2012
11:58 am
@LtCol Razorback,
You’re going to get your money. If you believe otherwise, you’ve been misled. The only options being tossed around are raising the retirement age and increasing the tax.
If we did private investment, you would probably be worse off. While you are responsible, others aren’t. Their lack of savings would contribute to a higher overall taxation, because we would need to subsidize those who saved nothing. By forcing all members of society to pay something, we can ensure a lower burden later on for everyone else.
It’s the same premise in car insurance and Obamacare. Everyone is forced to pay so that we don’t have free riders.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
11:58 am
Rafe
You are still making excuses. You can’t help yourself.
You are one of those people that says it was the right man when your candidate wins or you cry like a baby and make excuses if your candidate loses.
It is that simple. You know you do it, but do not want to admit it. You can’t help yourself.
But I’m sure you are a good guy and can think slight better than the character you are named after
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 13th, 2012
12:02 pm
“If we did private investment, you would probably be worse off. ”
Not according to Galveston County, TX.
JF McNamara
August 13th, 2012
12:09 pm
@Tiberius,
I don’t get your point. You are forced to pay into it. The only change they made was that they invested is safer vehicles.
It’s the same thing as social security aside from the investment vehicle and that its prepayment. We would have a 30 year gap while the money grew meaning that a generation of people would get no help.
What did I say wrong?
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
12:09 pm
Logical
Saying that there are all these obstacles stacked against him in the race and in the debates, which he will overcome and win, is an excuse? If he doesn’t anticipate what he is facing and is not prepared sufficiently to take them on, then he probably deserves to lose, just like McCain.
You think you have heard excuses just wait til Obama loses. Racism, voter suppression, Tea Party radicals, stolen election, election bought by big donors, etc ad nausuem.
Zikerria
August 13th, 2012
12:10 pm
“…simply betting/hoping Romney wouldn’t have the guts to thrust Ryan — and thus the entitlements question – into this campaign”
If he does that in any meaningful way he’ll lose.
We Americans are hopelessly addicted to our entitlements. We say that we need and want entitlement reform, but hardly anyone is willing to give up that government check in the mail. It’s basic human nature, and the Dems understand and exploit it so well.
snoqualmiefalls
August 13th, 2012
12:10 pm
On Fox News Sunday with Sen. MCCain, asked if he thinks Ryan will overshadow Romney, MCCain quips ” I had that problem” with Palin.
Thanks Grandpa, enough said…. seing how that worked out so well.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
12:15 pm
Rafe
Quit with the excuses. You brought in the Obama bs. I never mentioned the Democrats didn’t make excuses.
As you noticed, I said you are one of those people. “Those people” can fall on either side and you are surely one of “those people”.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 13th, 2012
12:16 pm
What you got wrong, JF McNamara, is exactly what I pointed out. A private plan would probably be better for most people, rather than a government plan. Galveston County, TX proves that.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 13th, 2012
12:20 pm
It’s been over 48 hours since the Ryan announcement and we have no word yet on all the women that he sexually harassed, had an affair with or cut off in traffic?????????? Are the smear job libs baffled by this pick? Having trouble recruiting women to play the part of the victims?
Dusty
August 13th, 2012
12:21 pm
jconservative@ 11:34
I see the new mantra will be “destroying Medicare as we know it”. That’s not ture, of course. Medicare will be the same for a few years and then modifications will be in place. That will give enough time for the next generation to adjust to any changes. The Ryan Plan, the sensible plan!
But the past mantra for the Obama administraation has been shown already for almost four years. It is “destroying America as we know it”. Just say “trillions” and eveyone thinks “the debt!”
Liberals sit on the sinking deck of the Titanic economy, drinking free tea, and saying “We could enjoy this forever!”
Darwin
August 13th, 2012
12:25 pm
The first thing I heard was that Obama “stole” $700 billion from Medicare. No one can balance the budget without addressing defense spending and entitlements. If Obama had made the real choices, Republicans would have killed him on it. That’s why.
JDW
August 13th, 2012
12:28 pm
@Tiberius…”As I’ve said all along, show me the $4 in cuts FIRST. Show me you can do that for 2 years minimum, and I’ll go along with a tax increase if still needed.”
Ahhh yes…The Tiberius version of Trust Me…NO…
It’s a negotiated agreement bring something to the table or get lost.
The Artful Dodger (Myth Robme) Is A Ryan Shame
August 13th, 2012
12:28 pm
@southpaw
August 13th, 2012
11:52 am
Artful Dodger @10:58 & 11:06
Voting for lots of government programs + doing nothing myself to help the poor = JUDGMENT. When Jesus gave His instructions to care for the poor, He was spending his time with the common people, not with the government leaders. When He did spend time with high-ranking officials (e.g. Pontious Pilate, the Sanhedrin), He said nothing about the poor.
______________________________________________________
Deuteronomy 15:11
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Proverbs 14:31
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
Proverbs 22:9
Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.
Proverbs 28:27)
The Bible tells us to share generously with those in need, and good things will come to us in turn. We are not meant to live hard-hearted or self-centered lives. This is never made clearer than in Matthew 25:31-46. A greedy, miserly life leaves us devoid of anything but an empty craving for more possessions, more power or more status.
ENOUGH SAID
Dusty
August 13th, 2012
12:28 pm
I Report,
Give the poor liberals a little more time. They were expecting a pushover to incriminate and they got a bulldozer instead. That doooo make it hard!
As you see, they are all out of breath, waiting at the door first thing in the morning, DNC script in hand and the caps lock ready to go. (Ryan did it!)
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 13th, 2012
12:31 pm
Think for a moment about ALL those people who went into retirement in 2006, 2007, and 2008 – comfortable in their 401ks only to see it mostly wiped out in 2008. Those people didn’t have 4 years to sit out retirement and wait for their 401k’s to bounce back.
This is why we don’t get rid of the safety net! THINGS HAPPEN….
Vote for Romney/Ryan if you want to risk living in a box and eating dog food in your retirement years!
The Artful Dodger (Myth Robme) Is A Ryan Shame
August 13th, 2012
12:32 pm
@Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer’s ineptocracy
August 13th, 2012
12:09 pm
Logical
You think you have heard excuses just wait til Obama loses. Racism, voter suppression, Tea Party radicals, stolen election, election bought by big donors, etc ad nausuem.
___________________________________________________
SINCE YOU can predict the future…….
WHAT IS THE POWERBALL NUMBER?
Kyle Wingfield
August 13th, 2012
12:33 pm
Logical Song @ 11:23: If you recall, I didn’t mention the debates once during my column about voting for Newt, and I generally played down the debate angle because, even if one believed the Newt-beating-Obama-in-the-debates hype, one also had to acknowledge the debates represented a few hours in the scope of a months-long presidential campaign.
What I did say about Newt was that I liked his ability to offer a compelling contrast with Obama’s vision for the country. Had Paul Ryan been in the race, I would have endorsed him for his ability to do the same without the obvious baggage Newt brought with him.
JF McNamara
August 13th, 2012
12:34 pm
@Tiberius,
I don’t think you read what I wrote. If everyone is forced to pay into a plan, its no different than social security aside for what you choose to invest in. If you don’t then everyone would likely be worse off.
He said he would be better off investing the social security money in his 401K. Yes, he might, but on the whole we would be worse off because everyone isn’t forced to pay into their 401K. A lot of people would be free riders once they weren’t able to work any longer.
That’s my point. You can’t just take one sentence out of a paragraph without context to cherry pick. What I said was 100% accurate in the context of our conversation (which really didn’t include you at all…)
JDW
August 13th, 2012
12:34 pm
@Kyle..”We will soon find out if the Obama team has prepared substantive proposals for these issues or was simply betting/hoping Romney wouldn’t have the guts to thrust Ryan — and thus the entitlements question — into this campaign.”
I am quite sure that the Obama campaign will be “thrusting Ryan” right smack into the entitlements debate because by a huge margin Americans don’t like his plan.
As for “Romney having guts”…I am quite sure he is going to have the guts to attempt to distance himself from Ryan’s plans..in fact he already is.
This is a loser on the same level as the Palin nomination. People actually like Sarah until she started talking. Most either don’t know or don’t like Ryan already and will like him much less when he starts talking.
Kyle Wingfield
August 13th, 2012
12:34 pm
@JPP: Ryan rejected Bowles-Simpson because he had his own plan. Unlike, say, Obama.
jconservative
August 13th, 2012
12:35 pm
“OKAY J…..your 10 to 30 second bite comment is getting a little boring………..”
Sorry. But the flood of sound bites we get every election cycle are also boring. But then they seem to work. Correct? But I promise to stop talking about it when the American voter starts ignoring campaign commercials. Cross my heart…………….!
Dusty at 12:21. The truth of a sound bite has nothing to do with it working.
The problem for Republicans is that they are running against a president with the worst economy in almost 80 years are are losing. The Romney presidential campaign is still preaching to the choir. The Ryan pick made the choir happy.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 13th, 2012
12:36 pm
A private plan would probably be better for most people, rather than a government plan.
like a 401k plan would have been better to have in 2008 than a pension plan????? You want to take what is defined and turn it over to the gamblers on Wall Street?
Maybe we make it a choice – either you choose a private sector SS plan or a government run plan. But wait, no – all it takes is one private sector wipe out like 2008 and all of the plans go down. So, no. We aren’t going to let your Gods on Wall Street gamble with our money.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
12:36 pm
Speaking of talkings points.
Dusty you stay in the most shallow of waters of any one on here when it comes to political discussions. Most times you are not even allowed in the kiddie pool.
You should be the last one to talk about talking points when that all you do and not that good.
I’m sure you heaped the same praise on Palin and boy she really helped the ticket, but thanks for the shallow analysis.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 13th, 2012
12:38 pm
As for “Romney having guts”…
Romeny had to do something – he was heading toward a landslide loss in November. This will make it a bit tighter of a race.
Kyle Wingfield
August 13th, 2012
12:39 pm
yuze @ 11:34: And which of these modifications or tweaks does Obama support? SS is arguably the easiest of the entitlement programs to fix, yet Obama doesn’t have a plan even for that — and has done nothing with the Bowles-Simpson recommendations.
And it’s not seniors who should be scared, by either side: The Ryan plan is limited to those under age 55 now, and the Obama non-plan won’t affect most retirees because they won’t live to see the real crisis. The people under age 55 are the ones who should demand a plan from Obama before they consider voting for him, because as of today a vote for him is a vote for wasting four more years that could be used for making the transition as easy as possible.
Logical Song
August 13th, 2012
12:39 pm
Kyle
Thanks for the reply. But I still stand by my prediction. Unless something drastic changes, Romney and Ryan will need knockouts. I doubt they will be knocked out themselves, but a draw will not get it.
JDW
August 13th, 2012
12:40 pm
@Tiberius…”Only in the media.”
And the minds of the voters…