Vice President Biden vs. Congressman Ryan

by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

2012 VP Post Debate Wrap Up

Overall, great debate! We got to see two spokesmen for their respective points of view, champion their cause. Possibly because of all the resume padding done on Paul Ryan, I was prepared for a high level dissertation on the mathematics of our budget and economy. I had my pencil, paper and calculator all ready to go. Much to my surprise, none of it happened. As a matter of fact, none of the math was beyond what I could handle in my head. This makes me wonder what exactly was Paul Ryan talking about during his interview with FOX News’ Chris Wallace? I try – not always successfully – to keep an open mind. When Paul Ryan told Mr. Wallace that in essence, the math was too complex for the scope of their discussion, my plate was set for some complex whiz bang mathematics. The fact that none of this manifested during the debate makes me suspect that Congressman Ryan was dodging the question. When people dodge questions I become extremely curious. What was he trying to hide?

Early into the debate – I mean very early – it became apparent to me that Congressman Ryan was over matched, in over his head and out of his depth. I was extremely puzzled midway through the debate, by his quip, “when you don’t have a record to run on…” No you didn’t say that to Vice President Joe Biden? His record began before Paul Ryan was in high school! Experience showed. Congressman Ryan was talking theory. Vice President Biden was talking experience. Experience trumps theory every time!

Let’s look at what I thought were some key points.

Afghanistan

When you blow away the monkey dust Congressman Ryan was trying to throw in the air, the Romney-Ryan ticket says they will do the exact same thing the Obama administration is already doing! President Obama – and Joe Biden was very emphatic on this – will have us out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Congressman Ryan says that the Romney-Ryan plan is also to leave by 2014… but he’s against letting anybody know the date. New flash! You just spilled the beans Paul!

Social Security – Medicare

This argument was all Joe Biden. There were two key issues that Vice President Biden hammered home. The first was, when congressman Ryan talks about savings, those savings mean a reduction in benefits paid out to people who’ve already earned those benefits. You’ve paid for them over the course of your working life. Congressman Ryan kept throwing around the magic age of 54 and younger. In other words, if you’re 55 don’t worry because nothing changes under the Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare. Here’s the problem. IF you’re in your 20’s just starting your career, you can in fact plan for, less government assistance when you turn 65. You can buy insurance, annuities whatever you need to do to prepare. If however, you’re 40, 50 or 54, there is simply not enough time to restructure your retirement plans.

Romney-Ryan tax plan

Trust me!

This was the one where I put pencil to paper in preparation! In spite of Mitt Romney’s claims to the contrary, following the first Presidential debate, the fact checkers have confirmed that Mitt was lying. His tax plan does indeed cost 5 trillion – that trillion with a “T” – dollars. The moderator was right on point by holding congressman Ryan’s feet to the fire. The renowned Republican math wizard simply could not make the figures balance nor could he say how they would pay for it. I must confess to being somewhat let down. Well, not really! What it did was confirm to me that these two simply cannot be trusted under any circumstances. The only way to pay for their tax plan is to do away with the home owner deduction, deductions for sending your kids to college, in essence the very things that make the middle class possible!

When asked if people making less than 100k a year should be paying close to 30% or more in income taxes while Mitt Romney pays 14% on the $20 million he admits to making… congressman Ryan of course had no answer. Vice President Biden won this one hands down.

Libya

I’d call this one a draw if I did not have some idea of how things work. Surprisingly congressman Ryan feigned ignorance. When things are unfolding… particularly something as serious as an international event in which we lose one of our ambassadors, there exists what is known as the “Fog of War.” Things go dark. Reports begin coming in. The American people want to know what is going on and you have to tell them what you know at that time. You have a 50/50 chance of being either right or wrong. It is all based on what’s happening on the ground and many times you don’t know what’s going on until you actually get boots on the ground and collect evidence and tapes. Personally I was not pleased with the Romney-Ryan ticket using this tragedy in an effort for political gain.

Iran

Here again was an issue that did not play well for the younger inexperienced congressman Ryan. When the moderator asked what would a Romney-Ryan ticket do to keep Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, congressman Ryan did not have any answer. There was nothing he could offer by way of any differences. Congressman Ryan seemed unaware of the magnitude of the sanctions already in place. He was unaware of the fact that the U.S. and Israel are on the same page. He did not seem to understand the difference in having fissionable material and having an actual weapon to deliver it in. He simply did not know. The only thing they could do differently that is not already being done is to immediately declare war on Iran. In a word, reckless! This one again went clearly to Biden.

Abortion

This one was interesting and we heard a clear difference between the two candidates. How you’d score this depends on your personal convictions. What was interesting was, congressman Ryan’s position is either different from Mitt Romney’s or he succeeded in pinning down Mitt Romney much to Mitt Romney’s dismay. Depending on the day of the week and the crowd he’s talking to, Mitt Romney is either totally against abortions in all cases or he’s for abortions in certain cases. The good thing about this is, we may here Mitt have to take an actual position, stick with it and clarify it.

Conclusion

In my opinion, Joe Biden won this debate walking away. It wasn’t even close. It is difficult to debate someone who was present and participated in history when all you’ve got is untried and unproven theory. I admire congressman Ryan’s scrappy-ness, but he was simply out of his league.

In case you missed it, here is the complete debate