We'll get to the budget talk in a minute because there are two things that we have to point out off the top. First we, as Mr. Gregory did, made a note of Congressman Ryan's statement that he believes that the president is more interested in political conquest than in political compromise. We also want to point out that in addition, Mr. Ryan stated that this election was a status quo election.
In his first interview since the election, Congressman Paul Ryan seems to still being looking at things through the prism of bitter defeat. Whether you thought that President Obama's inauguration speech was a liberal vision or not is not news. As a Democratic president, he idyllic vision is going to look to the left. What should we have expected? "Why be coy?" Ted Koppel asked. And despite what Mr. DeMint would tell you, Americans chose this direction for the country. Democrats won the executive branch, gained in the Senate, and tallied a million more votes nationally in House races.
That aside, Mr. Ryan questioned President Obama's motives when he spoke about political conquest, suggesting that he doesn't have the interest of the country first. This is hardly a comment for a leader of the Republican party as Bob Woodward projected him to be. Mr. Ryan's budget contains no outlined revenue generating mechanisms and only spending cuts - austerity. England, right now, is in a triple-dip recession with the austerity measures in place. If you completely take revenues off the table, that's not compromise so to fault the president for not doing so is a shallow argument. So when Mr. Ryan said that Republicans weren't preaching for austerity but to preempt it with growth and opportunity citing Simpson-Bowles' recommendations to reinforce his argument, something he voted against, it just melts into shallow rhetoric. That's not to say that the President is guiltless; he needs to get more serious as well. As Mr. Woodward pointed out, the president once said that the Ryan proposal on medicare was a serious piece, but now dismisses it. That was during that Republican retreat at the beginning of Mr. Obama's first term where he went and stared them all down in a room by the way. But frankly, if you are a very liberal Democrat, President Obama's policies and suggested compromises don't necessarily make you happy. Andrea Mitchell pointed out that the administration had floated raising the eligibility age for social security and medicare to 67 from 65 and to understate it is didn't go over very well.
And speaking of Social Security, Mr. Ryan used his mother as an example that she is not a 'taker' because she paid into a system all her life and now she is getting back that benefit. What we don't understand is why he would deem that all right but deny future generations that same opportunity - to pay into a social insurance system so that retirement can be just that... retirement.
And just to get it on record, Mr. Ryan voted against Hurricane Sandy relief for the Northeast. Judge that as you will.
Mr. Ryan was also asked about the sequestration of the defense
budget and said that those automatic cuts wouldn't have even come up if
Mr. Romney were president because they would have worked across the
aisle to save defense. What he doesn't explain is that it would be at the expense of things like Social Security and Medicare. But here's the rub, and it brings us to the following topic.
The other aspect of the conversation that was vitally important was the turn to foreign policy and the warnings from NBC's Ted Koppel. We made this a significant point of last week's column when NBC's Richard Engel was on the program discussing foreign policy. This is most troubling because the consequences are protracted war and conflict where there will be no winners. Mr. Koppel ticked them off: An unfinished Afghanistan, chemical weapons in an unstable Syria, nuclear weapons in a fundamentalist Pakistan, Israel striking at Iran, Iran launching cyber war against the United States. Do we need to say more? No, but then Mr. Woodward cited North Korea and the meltdown in Egypt. Andrea Mitchell threw in North Africa.
And the consequence is continually serious fiscal troubles here at home. So when we hear two major conservative voices say, on this program, that the president is only about political conquest and the 'failed liberal agendas in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles," as Jim Demint said as a rightfully indignant Andrea Mitchell shook her head, it instills no confidence in there leadership because of such a narrow agenda. Notice he didn't mention New York where much fundraising comes from. Additionally, he said that the overall philosophy of his administration is 'what difference does it make,' and this is not constructive at all so why should we believe it when he says that he's interested in the real reasons and causes. Mr. DeMint's statements do not see or take into account the complete diverse canvas that is the United States. NAACP President Ben Jealous used the phrase, 'that's playing to the cheap seats,' and that is what those kinds of comments do. It plays to pettiness that we must get passed given on how the rest of the world is changing radically week to week, and we're paying less and less attention.
Also, we didn't appreciate that Mr. DeMint would not answer many questions directly. Conscious denial of real events and in this case it was what Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal said this week about his party - the 'stupid party' comment. He wouldn't even acknowledge it or General Colin Powell's Meet The Press comments, and that's where the failed liberal agenda comments came into play. Congressman Ryan talked about the Republican party having the need to expand its appeal but ultimately there was nothing concretely stated today that starts to accomplish that.
What was amusing was when Mr. Ryan said that if we had a Clinton Presidency then we wouldn't be in the deadlocked state of affairs. He absolved his own party from any blame for our current dilemma, which again is conscious denial/ political games, but amusing due to the obvious irony. He may get what he wishes for, but what he doesn't realize that it really wouldn't change the dynamic.
There is a bright spot for Republicans and that is on immigration. From all the conversation during the round table, it seems as though there is bi-partisan cooperation for reform. And call this a gift from the Democrats to their colleagues across the aisle because it is surely going to help the Republicans' image better than it will Democrats. A bi-partisan bill will give the perception that Republicans are more sensitive to immigrants than is perceived even though they will not like many of the Democratic proposals to reform, such as the dream act, which Republicans call earned citizenship. Paraphrasing, immigration, as Mr. Ryan said, is what America is all about. And our suggestion is that while we can take this first step of cooperation [We agree with Mr. Woodward when he said that immigration, the budget, et al. is all doable.] on immigration, we just keep a keen eye on all these places we came from.
Incoming President of the Heritage Foundation, former Senator Jim DeMint
(R-SC); President and CEO of the NAACP Ben Jealous; Washington Post
Associate Editor Bob Woodward; NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Andrea Mitchell; and NBC News Special Correspondent Ted Koppel.
Program Note: We like that they brought back a 'Meet the Press Moment,' in this case John Kerry appearing on the program in 1971. It was a pertinent clip given Senator Kerry's confirmation as Secretary of State, and you can see the full clip online - definitely important viewing. However, we'd prefer that it didn't come in the middle of the program. We realize that you can not have it at the very end of the program, having to plug the full version of the clip online and then another plug for the Press Pass during the week. It's too much. Perhaps, keeping the clip pertinent to today, play it toward the end of the round table discussion and get some quick reaction for more perspective and insight. Thoughts?
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