Forget who was the nerd and who got his Irish up: Middle class: you are still in jeopardy

 The vice presidential candidate debate October 11 left  us pondering the details,  malarkey, and whose oxen are getting gored.

Forget who looked like a nerd and who got their Irish up.  The Vice Presidential debate yesterday was about issue substance and  Rep. Ryan provided  substance without details. Apologies to Dancing with the Stars’ iconic phrase,  but Ryan’s unintentional message to the  middle class and the poor is, “ You are still in jeopardy.”

 Vice President Biden’s  greatest failure was   to make much of  a case of how far the economy had improved ,  the unemployment rate drop to 7.8%,  or that  Wall Street has roared back and housing sales and consumer confidence were up. His greatest successes were to remind women that Obama would preserve Roe v Wade and Romney would not, and  to resurrect  branding  Romney as one who did not care about the 47% . He also made “malarkey” the operative word. (Per Websters: …baloney…horsefeathers..)

What Biden  called  malarkey was Ryan’s contention that Romney’s  proposed  a $5 trillion  tax cut of 20%   for all  could be paid for by those un tallied and un listed   loophole closings.   The Washington Post  Fact checkers the next day agreed with Biden: ,” The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has analyzed the specifics of Romney’s plan thus far released and concluded that the numbers aren’t there to make it revenue neutral.

In the debate, Ryan twice countered that “six other studies” have found that not to be the case, but those studies actually do not provide much evidence that Romney’s proposal — as sketchy as it is — would be revenue neutral without making unrealistic assumptions or changing the parameters of Romney’s tax cut. (Some are not even studies but more like opinion articles.) So Ryan is wrong to assert the studies have “verified that this math adds up.”

The detail deficit award went to  Rep. Ryan .Missing,  was how to  pay for Romney’s plan to add $2 trillion for the Pentagon and to keep the $1 trillion Bush tax cuts for the wealthy on top of the 20% tax gift.  Once again, fair or not, the wealthy and big business get the benefits if Bush tax cuts are kept .  

   Missing were whose loopholes and deductions were to be cut . Not taken off the table were specific  corporate loopholes, or deductions for  mortgages, health care costs, charitable contributions or education..

  Missing, too, were what discretionary programs would be axed. Romney has embraced the Ryan plan  that calls for 30 to 40% cuts in discretionary programs, across the board or item by item,  including   federal aid to education,  or  social safety net programs for the poor such as Medicaid used to keep  Grandma in the nursing home and child health care, food stamps, and  kids lunches.  If Romney cares about the 47%, he is not putting his plans where his heart is.

Ryan played boogey man on Medicare, evoking the death panel scare that some Obama government panel was going to pull grandma’s plug..  Every fact checker in the past  has called that one untrue.  Biden failed to mention Obamacare’s law forbad any panel from imposing any reduction in benefits or coverage.. More Ryan malarkey:  Obama took $716 billion out of Medicare…destroying Medicare Advantage and implying that benefits had been reduced.  That is when Biden was at his best and  looked at the camera  asked seniors if they had lost benefits or Medicare Advantage. Of course not.

Per the Annenberg Foundation www.factcheck.org on Obamacare,  Ryan was wrong  claiming “20 million people … are projected to lose their health insurance” (not true), that premiums have gone up $3,000 (no, they haven’t) and that 7.4 million seniors “are going to lose” Medicare Advantage plans (maybe, but they’d still be covered by traditional Medicare).

The Ryan plan would  burden  the old folks to manage their own coverage with  vouchers inadequate to cover future costs while Obama would not change traditional Medicare. As Biden correctly pointed out,  Obamacare extended the life of Medicare to 2024. if Obamacare was repealed, Medicare would run out of money in 2016.

That Obamacare or any tax increases would fall on small business was challenged by Biden as well, pointing to the exemption of all but 3% of small business in the administration plans. www.factcheck.org agreed with Biden the next day.

Both pointed fingers on  Libya, and Biden made some  surprising assertions that the CIA failed to inform the administration about the nature of the attack that killed the US Ambassador,  and  that Iran did not have the capability to use a nuclear weapon even if they were able to enrich uranium.   Biden made four other  points:  Romney was not clear on what he would do differently than Obama in Middle East conflicts, with some exceptions..    Romney’s aggressive rhetoric  and  looser policies in arming  Syrian rebels made him more likely to get us into war with Iran and Syria.  Romney was   soft on a 2014 withdrawal date from Afghanistan, and made it dependent on conditions on the ground while Obama was firm on the date. . Ryan stuttered  weak replies in spite of his apparent prepping for the debate. Stay tuned for the second presidential debate next Tuesday where foreign policy questions could be raised . The third presidential debate  Oct. 22 will dwell on foreign policy.