Once again GOP primary day got owned by President Obama, as he knocked down the Ryan budget and mocked Mitt Romney’s elitism.
Here is the video of Obama mocking Romney’s love of the Ryan budget:
President Obama addressed Mitt Romney’s support of the Ryan budget, “This is now the party’s governing platform. This is now what they are running on. One of my potential opponents, Governor Romney said he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. He said he’s very supportive of this new budget, and he even called it marvelous, which is word you don’t often hear when describing a budget. It’s a word you don’t often hear generally.”
Some highlights of Obama obliterating the Ryan budget from CNN:
Obama specifically attacked the Ryan budget, “This Congressional Republican budget, however, is something different altogether. It’s a Trojan Horse. Disguised as deficit reduction plan, it’s really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It’s nothing but thinly-veiled Social Darwinism. It’s antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everyone who’s willing to work for it – a place where prosperity doesn’t trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class. And by gutting the very things we need to grow an economy that’s built to last – education and training; research and development – it’s a prescription for decline.”
He also argued against the theory of trickle down economics that serves as the basis for all Republican economic ideology, “In this country, broad-based prosperity has never trickled-down from the success of a wealthy few. It has always come from the success of a strong and growing middle class. That’s how a generation who went to college on the GI Bill, including my grandfather, helped build the most prosperous economy the world has ever known. That’s why a CEO like Henry Ford made it his mission to pay his workers enough so they could buy the cars that they made. That’s why studies have shown that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run.”
Obama stated that the Republicans have gotten so extreme that Ronald Reagan couldn’t be nominated today, “Ronald Reagan, who as I recall was not accused of being a tax-and-spend socialist, understood repeatedly that when the deficit started to get out of control that for him to make a deal he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases … He did it multiple times. He could not get through a Republican primary today.”
On a day when Mitt Romney might be able to virtually lock up the nomination, the president took the headlines away from him. The timing of the president’s remarks was no coincidence. The new version of the Ryan budget has been out there for a while. He could have delivered his remarks at any time, but the White House chose today to send the message that they aren’t going to lie down and let the Republicans dominate the headlines and airwaves will attack ads until the fall.
The president is here to fight and he can upstage Romney and the Republicans any day of the week at any time of his choosing. Romney and the Republican message aren’t powerful enough to go toe to toe with Obama. This is a president who senses the power of his incumbency, and he is not afraid to flex his muscles and knock his opponents off the front page at will.
This was speech was a tour de force from President Obama today. There were several contextual themes present in his remarks. Obama’s joke about Romney’s use of the word marvelous wasn’t designed just to jab at the likely Republican nominee. Obama’s speech was laid out as an repudiation of the defense and enhancement of the wealthy elitism that servers as core for Romney and the Republican Party.
The president pointed out that Republicans want to lower the deficit, but they don’t want to close tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations. He framed his arguments against Ryan budget around doing what’s right and fairness. He argued for the Buffett Rule and for increasing taxes on the wealthy. Obama defended the middle class, the social safety net, and seniors.
President Obama is turning this election away from being a referendum on him, and into a choice about the future direction of our society and our economy. Obama is making an impassioned argument for fairness, openness, and opportunity. There is an egalitarian optimism towards the future in Obama’s vision for America that Mitt Romney doesn’t possess.
This was Obama at the height of his powers. John McCain didn’t have an answer for this in 2008, and I doubt that Mitt Romney will fare much better in 2012.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
The Ryan plan will do nothing but lower the middle class and poor’s ability to survive. They have no intentions of closing tax loopholes that the rich get away with, turning instead to take everything possible from the poor.
And its fricking blatant. Out in the open blatant. Obama has to hammer this one home
I just wish he hadn’t used the misnomer “Social Darwinism”, but otherwise… a fantastic speech and right on target.
The Republicans… keep the poor in their misery, and add to their numbers where and whenever possible. Make it hard to nearly impossible to escape poverty and improve one’s life. Make poverty more lethal. After that, so many of them have the gall to claim Jesus’ name (without paying any attention to what He taught).
Yet poor people and even middle class people still follow them and spout their lies.
It is not a misnomer at all. The term Social Darwinism is used in political science, in the exact way that the president used it today. It is a common academic term within a field. The president’s usage was correct.
Ryan and Romney’s responses to the president’s speech show that they have nothing to offer to the majority of Americans. Their shock and hurt feelings were very visible today. Ryan should have expected the president to be frank about his budget because PBO eviscerated his budget last year. Romney never saw such a frontal, in-your-face attack coming. Mr. Etch A Sketch was reeling from being connected so closely, and truthfully, to the Ryan Plan by PBO that he had to run to the safety of Fox News to respond–a place where he knows he’ll get no push back on anything he has to say, however wrong/misleading. With these guys, it’s always okay for republicans to go on the offensive, but when PBO defends his positions on issues, it’s time to haul out the fainting couches and smelling salts.
Yeah. I will never get this voting against your self interest thing that religious right evangelicals love to do here in Texas and the southern states. My mother in-law is a typical example; she recently had a stroke and she has no health insurance. It’s been a nightmare trying to apply for the physical therapy that she needs and her medical bills are horrendous. At every turn we have been confronted by people that have given us the “Texas believes in pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” garbage.
Currently, my mother in-law is living with us and I know that she is going to have one of us drive her to the polls on election day. She will of course will vote Republican! I hate to say it but I have zero sympathy for her.
Absolutely, Shiva. They don’t even bother to hide it anymore. I’m pretty well resigned to the fact that that IS their agenda. It seems to be their mindset to “get as much as we can as fast as we can” before everything falls apart. And to get that, they have to let the middle class and poor be destroyed. Time after time, they show their agenda: more for the rich, no new revenues, gut social services, screw the elderly. Hungry kids? Not their problem. No education? Not their problem, they can afford private affluent schools. Really sad that our nation has come to this. Keep up the fight, folks, we can’t let them win this.
i like his temperament and humor today. his optics are just hitting their stride…. he will eat willard for lunch in any debate….
The president eviscerated Paul Ryan’s “budget” by pointing out the fact that the math in this sorry excuse for one shows it would be extremely detrimental to middle-class and poor Americans while further enriching only the wealthy. The phony outrage of both Romney and Ryan is quite sickening, especially since Ryan tried in vain to sell the same steaming pile last year. Does he seriously think his steaming pile smells any better this year? As for Romney, he deserves to get stuck with this monstrosity for the duration of the election cycle. That’s because it is a true indication of what he would do if he ever became president.
i loved the speech!
“Countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run.” We’re in deep doo-doo!
I think you might be too busy to drive her and she needs to be self reliant and find her own way if she is going to vote against her own interests.
Hmmm…they planned this AP meeting when and the primaries were guaranteed to get this result…!
Please…they give the President so much credit for foresight…even his parents…a bi-racial couple in the 1960’s knew the unborn son? was going to be President!
Such absurd BS!
Ryan/ romney budget outcomes:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3723