Paul Ryan was sent into the friendly confines of Fox News and he fumbled the hand off. This one was easy. He simply screwed up a simple question, a question which a ninth-grade debate student would have been ready for. Paul Ryan is the Republican financial guru on Capitol Hill. He developed the last two Republican budgets. Yet, when he was asked by Brit Hume about when his budget balances, he couldn’t answer the question.
Watch it:
Now, he should have planned for this question. It should have been obvious to everyone that he would get the question. He could have said, “The problem is that we are in such a huge deficit hole that we can’t balance the budget in the next five to seven years without huge cuts to social services which would devastate the elderly and poor and that is just not realistic at this time. Our plan is a nice step in the direction of fiscal health.” That would have been pretty good, but he didn’t say that.
Now I’m confused. WaPo columnist Matt Miller jumped all over this interview, saying that Ryan never answered the question. But when you listen to this CNN clip, Ryan does eventually say “we believe” the Congressional plan will balance the budget in 10 years. WTF?
Great clip! Instead of answering the question, Ryan just tries to turn it back on Obama. That’s B.S. If your plan (whichever, just f’ing pick one) balances the budget, then proudly come right out and say so. They have nothing. Nothing. President Obama is responsible for beginning the economic recovery. We will be out of this mess if we give him four more years. As the nice lady said on CNN, he’s only been on the job 3 days, but COME ON! Say what it is, or say what it ain’t! As my Granny used to say, “dance with the one that brung you.” She was a lifelong Democrat, and if she hadn’t passed a few years ago, she would be the “poster child” for a campaign against Ryan’s Medicare Killing budget.
I think that the take-home lesson from the Paul Ryan interview is twofold – first, he seems completely unprepared to answer the simplest question. This is a question that he should have anticipated and practiced an answer for. Secondly, the Paul Ryan budget cuts taxes for millionaires and raises taxes on the middle class. (http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3708)
Thanks for your comments.
he simply couldn’t answer a softball question. If you’re not ready for prime time (he’d only been on the job three days) that he should be studying instead of doing interviews. Yet, somebody thought he was ready. He’d been answered questions on his own budget for over a year. He is the economic guru for the Republican Party on Capitol Hill. I don’t buy the copout that he’d only been on the job three days. Paul Ryan had been lobbying to be the vice presidential nominee for over six months. He thought he was ready. He failed.
Thanks for your comments.