The unofficial Obama and Romney VP speculation thread

[Indy Coug]

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@hughhewitt
Any Democrat who watched 60 Minutes open and who still says they are happy it's Ryan is lying

[Commando]

I think Ryan is a game changer. I didn't know much about him before, but after watching his speech, Biden should be shitting pants right about now.

[TripletDaddy]

I think Ryan is a game changer. I didn't know much about him before, but after watching his speech, Biden should be shitting pants right about now.

lol.

I remember hearing the same thing about Palin at the RNC.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

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No, the Democrats aren't nervous. They understand that if there's one thing Americans won't tolerate, it's someone who's antagonistic to the welfare state and feckless fiscal policy.

[LA Ute]

Cali, fraud in Medicare and Medicaid is indeed a huge problem in the healthcare industry and helping healthcare providers avoid it, detect it, and report it is a big part of that world. To say that legislation will be paid for by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse is a joke. It's also a ploy used for decades by politicians who need some way to justify a spending program they can't pay for.

[Omaha 680]

Look, defense spending (even excluding the cost of wars) right now exceeds all of Medicare spending. In 2011, defense spending was only $25 billion less than all social security spending (the gap widened a fair bit in 2012, in part due to cuts in military spending and in part due to growth in SS). It's a huge part of the nation's spending. It constitutes about 52% of all discretionary spending by the federal government.

Yes- Medicare is projected to be the real issue because of its growth over time, but you can't just ignore something the size of defense spending and act like it has nothing to do with future economic problems. It does.

You can see in my posts that I wasn't advocating ignoring defense. I was just pointing out the numbers. Considering you could eliminate the dept of defense and we'd still be running a half trillion dollar deficit makes me wonder how defense cuts are supposed to he a big solution. And discretionary spending by definition isn't as big of a future problem as mandatory.

That being said, if they could push through a 20% cut across all departments, I'd be on board in a second. But that will never happen.

[calicoug]

Cali, fraud in Medicare and Medicaid is indeed a huge problem in the healthcare industry and helping healthcare providers avoid it, detect it, and report it is a big part of that world. To say that legislation will be paid for by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse is a joke. It's also a ploy used for decades by politicians who need some way to justify a spending program they can't pay for.

You should read more about this, then. I think you would support what Dems did in this area. Here's a helpful summary. I'll send more if you are interested.

http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/2010...care-benefits/

Calling this a "gutting" of Medicare is beyond asinine.

[Jeff Lebowski]

lol.

I remember hearing the same thing about Palin at the RNC.

From Mike Waters and Seattle Ute. Good times.

[Commando]

lol.

I remember hearing the same thing about Palin at the RNC.

Yeah who knew she'd turn out to be illiterate?

[venkman]

Ryan is great. Smart, articulate, and convincing. People will listen to him and say "that guy makes a lot of sense".

It's pretty rare when democrats can't claim Republicans have a dummy on the ticket. This is a good sign.

[calicoug]

You can see in my posts that I wasn't advocating ignoring defense. I was just pointing out the numbers. Considering you could eliminate the dept of defense and we'd still be running a half trillion dollar deficit makes me wonder how defense cuts are supposed to he a big solution. And discretionary spending by definition isn't as big of a future problem as mandatory.

That being said, if they could push through a 20% cut across all departments, I'd be on board in a second. But that will never happen.

Are we talking about long-term debt issues (which I thought was your point earlier) or current deficit issues? I thought we were focusing on the long-term issues but your post here references the current deficit.

I'm not at all worried about the current deficit. It's largely a byproduct of a recession combined with war spending. Tax revenues are sharply down relative to the norm, something that will fix itself once the economy boots back up to full speed. War spending is already on the decline with our withdrawal from Iraq and pending withdrawal from Afghanistan. Those two factors alone are probably enough to fix the deficit we have now.

Long term, we have structural issues that need fixing (Medicare being the top priority). Defense spending isn't "structural" except in one sense- the defense lobby is huge and powerful and it's getting increasingly difficult to stop projects that don't work, close bases that aren't necessary, and trim spending overall. That's a compounding issue and one that will need addressing. Eisenhower was a bit of a prophet in this regard.

[LA Ute]

You should read more about this, then. I think you would support what Dems did in this area. Here's a helpful summary. I'll send more if you are interested.

http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/2010...care-benefits/

Hey, in my business life I'm non-partisan, so I don't go to partisan sources for info on how to advise my clients. And I do have some pretty good information resources available to me. But thanks anyway.

[LA Ute]

Lol at anyone seriously comparing Ryan to Palin.

[Tex]

lol.

I remember hearing the same thing about Palin at the RNC.

Heh, yeah, sure you did.

[Tex]

I think liberals are similarly amused at conservative attempts to convince themselves Ryan is a good addition politically.

I guess we will all know the answer in a few months.

As a rough measure of conservative enthusiasm:

$3.5 million raised online only in first 24 hours after Ryan announcement, $4.7m total so far.

And, a few photos of rallies in NC and WI.

Sure looks like a bunch of people trying to convince themselves, don't it?

Via Drudge: