Romney can’t have it both ways on defense spending, tax cuts

By Dana Milbank, Published: July 25

There have been many mendacious moments in this presidential campaign, but it will be hard to top what Mitt Romney told the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference this week.

President Obama is seeking “an arbitrary, across-the-board budget reduction that would saddle the military with $1 trillion in cuts,” the Republican said. “Strategy is not driving the president’s massive defense cuts. In fact, his own secretary of defense warned that these reductions would be devastating, and he’s right. . . . This is no time for the president’s radical cuts in our military.”

Come again?

Romney is referring to the automatic spending cuts, or “sequestration,” required by the Budget Control Act of 2011. For those suffering memory loss of the sort afflicting Romney, that legislation came about when Republicans threatened to throw the country into default unless Democrats agreed to automatic budget cuts if a “supercommittee” couldn’t reach a bipartisan agreement (which it couldn’t, naturally). Continue reading

Ryan’s ‘Tough Issues’: More Tax Breaks for the Rich, Cuts to Medicare and Social Security for Everyone Else

08/29/2012; Mike Hall

Romney-Ryan budget vision for America is at odds with working families.

Tonight, Paul Ryan painted a picture of his and Mitt Romney’s vision of America. It is a vision, he said, where he and Romney “will not duck the tough issues” and where “Mitt Romney and I have made our” choices.

It is a vision that chooses more tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations—paid for by cuts in Social Security, Medicaid and other programs that poor and working-class families rely upon. It’s paid for with cuts to investments in our future such as education and rebuilding a crumbling infrastructure, both vital to maintaining and growing a middle class.

Ryan appealed to resentment and division, cynically labeling Obama’s cutting of waste from Medicare as a takeaway from seniors. But the reality is that the Affordable Care Act cut overpayments to private insurers who were making billions in profits. That money was invested back into traditional Medicare. Seniors saw improvements, not cuts to their Medicare benefits.

The vision Ryan painted tonight is a vision that is shaded pale and leaves no room for DREAMers. Continue reading “Ryan’s ‘Tough Issues’: More Tax Breaks for the Rich, Cuts to Medicare and Social Security for Everyone Else”