"60 Minutes": Romney, Ryan answer critics of Medicare position

Chris Usher

CBS News chief Washington correspondent and anchor of "Face the Nation" Bob Schieffer sat down with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on Sunday for their first interview since the Republican presidential nominee announced Ryan as his running mate.

Romney answered critics who say Ryan's Medicare plan will hurt the ticket's chances, especially in Florida.

"There's only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare," Romney said.

"What Paul Ryan and I have talked about is saving Medicare, is providing people greater choice in Medicare, making sure it's there for current seniors. No changes, by the way, for current seniors, or those nearing retirement. But looking for young people down the road and saying, "We're going to give you a bigger choice." In America, the nature of this country has been giving people more freedom, more choices. That's how we make Medicare work down the road."

Ryan added, "My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they've organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger. And we think these reforms are good reforms. That have bipartisan origins. They started from the Clinton commission in the late '90s."

The joint interview was taped in High Point, N.C., and will air Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern on "60 Minutes." Watch an excerpt in the video above.

CBSNews.com's complete coverage of Romney and Ryan: Romney's vice presidential choice.

[friedland]

The mealy mouthed interview of Romney and Ryan has destroyed 60 minute's reputation as a tough objective source of investigative reporting. Therefore we are also very concerned that Bob Schaefer (sic) is going to be a moderator on one of the debates.

[Carly_EngageAmerica]

Medicare currently represents a losing equation for young and old, seniors and taxpayers. Medicare is spending taxpayers' money faster than any other government program. It is facing insolvency in its hospitalization program, and it is generating trillions of dollars of massive long-term debt.
Congress and the American people will have to make a choice. Medicare's current course is disastrous, for seniors and taxpayers alike. There are finite resources available to reverse the current course, but the faster that policymakers act, the less difficult the task will be.
There is a better alternative. That alternative rests in harnessing the market forces of choice and competition, and making them the centerpiece of reform, while targeting aid to those who need it most.

[cattiej]

The way that Ryan and Romoney are going to "save Medicare" is to privateize.Some of Romoney's buddies will buy and manage Medicare and millions of people will be denied Medicare. First it will be a few hundred then a few thousands, then a few millions.. Check all of Ryans previous comments in regard to Medicare...Anyone who would vote for these to Flick and Flacks should never ever be able to use Medicare. Millions of Medicare recipients will go to the Casino's, Buy Lottery Tickets, Go to play Bingo and many will spent hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars but never want to pay more taxes..How stupid is that..We all need to pay taxes, that's how our country is run, and our taxes here in the U.S. are much cheaper than other countries including England..Look it up, do some research...while your at it, Look up Karl Rover or his father Louis Roverer or Grandfather the Nazi prison camp official.

[Hahn510]

Whay don't you make up some more BS , because as with your boss Obama - this is nothing but a pack of lies!

[mittfan]

Its already been proven that taxing the rich is not going to get us out of debt. It will run the country for 8 days! Whats wrong with you people who have blinders on. Main stream media does not tell you all the facts. Its sad because I believe that is how communism begins.

[TimeToEvolve]

These clowns have no plans and no ideas of their own. All they want is chaos so that their Wall Street masters can continue to steal from the American people as they have been.

[shannon66]

Ryan is a noodler. Do you know what that is? That's a native American tradition in which a fisherman offers his own arm as bait to a very large fish hiding in a muddy cave and when the fish grabs his arm to drag him into the cave, he grabs the fish by the inside of the mouth, drags him out of the cave, and wrestles him onto the shore to be eaten. Obama would be well advised to think about this before he assumes that Ryan is just easy bait.

[TimeToEvolve]

I think that the Republicons realize they have no chance this year. They are just being planted to try to move America even further to the right in the future.

[SissyLou365]

So why did you choose not to air this part of the interview on television? Didn't meet your DNC talking points? Can't wait until CBS becomes more irrelevant than it already is and goes off the air.

[shannon66]

SO true.

[TheChiefScientist]

That will happen post November 6, 2012 when Romney is elected to be the next President of The United States of America.

CBS cut out all of the meat that explains Ryan's plan because it was explained in a manner that everyone could understand it--that would be unacceptable because most of the Obama supporters would then understand that they have been duped into believing something that is completely false. They would have realized that their president has been lying to them all along. When a president lies to his nation the way that President Obama has and is, it comes out eventually and all but the most ardent supporters will see that they have been being treated as sheep, no, as dumb sheep by their president and they will change their minds about who the best man for the job is. When people understand that Ryan's plan does not effect anyone under the age of 55, thoughts will change. We can see it in the seniors that were polled in Florida. There has been a 15% shift from not liking Ryan to liking Ryan. Seniors are not duped like so many of the younger, less mature Americans but perhaps their coming to terms with what has really been going on will rub off on the young people, who will be the ones paying for Obama's insane economics along with their children. I have faith in the youth of this country to see that Obama is only putting them and their children and grand children into a position of such incredible high taxes that 'personal discretionary spending' will be a thing of the past.

[porkexpress]

For years I have thought that 60 minutes had the integrity to provide real journalistic news. You know what that, is to provide the answers to "Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How" and then let the watchers make up their minds as to what they perceived to be the story.

I guess now that they are proving to be a total "Liberal" or far left POS news agency. To also ask the person where the Dow will be if Romney and Ryan are elected I would like to say that it will probably be worth more than it is now. If someone tells me he has made money with a Retirement 401K I would like to say BS. I have Liberal and Conservative friends and they have all lost money in the Stock Market. The only difference between them is that the Liberals think that Obama will make it better but since he always blames the previous administration for all of his weaknesses, like fixing the economy and creating new jobs, I consider him just what he is " A Community Organizer" from Chicago.

To 60 Minutes I would like to say Sayonara and hope your blatant disregard for true journalism will ultimately cost you viewers. It is not the people that give the news but those who change the content of the interviews to fit the way they want it to be. Does George Soros own CBS now???

I will take a lot of heat for this thought but then again I am a free thinker and neither a Liberal nor a conservative as I am an "United States Citizen".

[shannon66]

Congratulations. You know the truth when you see it.

[EyeRoller]

THANKS CBS for editing out the part of the interview where Ryan said his mother was a Florida retiree on social security and that under his plan NO CHANGES to be made for people 55 and over.

Why the "thanks"? Because EVERYONE is talking about the edit today. It's getting WAY MORE attention by you trying to edit it out than it would had if you had included it.

[shannon66]

Exactly right. The question is when the dishonest reporting of the Liberal Press will cause enough continued decline in their readership / viewership to force them into some more balanced reporting.

[Eisenhower_Dwight_D_USA]

All the people who are saying 'Vote for Gary Johnson' are very ill informed. I AM a New Mexican and Governor Johnson was the absolute prototype 'do nothing, big oil' governor... He had a good smile, a warm handshake and that was about it. Talk is very cheap.

[TimeToEvolve]

I thought one evil, corrupt, Wall Street slave was bad enough. Now there are two! Hide your wallets and your kids from the impending invasions and occupations. Oh, and be very afraid of the terrorists. Or the Russians. Or someone.