Transcript: 2012 vice presidential debate, Part 1

RADDATZ: Congressman Ryan?

RYAN: Let's not forget that they came in with one-party control. When Barack Obama was elected, his party controlled everything. They had the ability to do everything of their choosing. And look at where we are right now.

They passed the stimulus. The idea that we could borrow $831 billion, spend it on all of these special interest groups, and that it would work out just fine, that unemployment would never get to 8 percent -- it went up above 8 percent for 43 months. They said that, right now, if we just passed this stimulus, the economy would grow at 4 percent. It's growing at 1.3.

RADDATZ: When could you get it below 6 percent?

RYAN: That's what our entire premise of our pro-growth plan for a stronger middle class is all about: getting the economy growing at 4 percent, creating 12 million jobs over the next four years.

Look at just the $90 billion in stimulus. The vice president was in charge of overseeing this. $90 billion in green pork to campaign contributors and special interest groups. There are just at the Department of Energy over 100 criminal investigations that have been launched into just how stimulus...

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: Martha...

RADDATZ: Go ahead. Go ahead.

BIDEN: Martha, look. His colleague...

RYAN: Crony capitalism and corporate welfare.

BIDEN: ... runs an investigative committee, spent months and months and months going into this.

RYAN: This is the -- this is the inspector general.

BIDEN: Months and months. They found no evidence of cronyism.

And I love my friend here. I -- I'm not allowed to show letters but go on our website, he sent me two letters saying, "By the way, can you send me some stimulus money for companies here in the state of Wisconsin?" We sent millions of dollars. You know...

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: You did ask for stimulus money, correct?

BIDEN: Sure he did. By the way...

RYAN: On two occasions we -- we -- we advocated for constituents who were applying for grants. That's what we do. We do that for all constituents who are...

(CROSSTALK) BIDEN: I love that. I love that. This was such a bad program and he writes me a letter saying -- writes the Department of Energy a letter saying, "The reason we need this stimulus, it will create growth and jobs." His words. And now he's sitting here looking at me.

And by the way, that program, again, investigated. What the Congress said was it was a model. Less than four-tenths of 1 percent waste or fraud in the program.

And all this talk about cronyism. They investigated and investigated, did not find one single piece of evidence. I wish he would just tell -- be a little more candid.

RYAN: Was it a good idea to spend taxpayer dollars on electric cars in Finland, or on windmills in China?

BIDEN: Look...

RYAN: Was it a good idea to borrow all this money from countries like China and spend it on all these various different interest groups?

BIDEN: Let me tell you what was a good idea. It was a good idea, Moody's and others said that this was exactly what we needed to stop this from going off the cliff. It set the conditions to be able to grow again. We have, in fact, 4 percent of those green jobs didn't go under -- went under, didn't work. It's a better batting average than investment bankers have. They have about a 40 percent...

RYAN: Where are the 5 million green jobs that were being...

RADDATZ: I want to move on here to Medicare and entitlements. I think we've gone over this quite enough.

BIDEN: By the way, any letter you send me, I'll entertain.

RYAN: I appreciate that, Joe.

(LAUGHTER)

RADDATZ: Let's talk about Medicare and entitlements. Both Medicare and Social Security are going broke and taking a larger share of the budget in the process.

Will benefits for Americans under these programs have to change for the programs to survive?

Mr. Ryan?

RYAN: Absolutely. Medicare and Social Security are going bankrupt. These are indisputable facts.

Look, when I look at these programs, we've all had tragedies in our lives. I think about what they've done for my own family. My mom and I had my grandmother move in with us who was facing Alzheimer's. Medicare was there for here, just like it's there for my mom right now who is a Florida senior.

After my dad died, my mom and I got Social Security survivors benefits, helped me pay for college, it helped her go back to college in her 50s where she started a small business because of the new skills she got. She paid all of her taxes on the promise that these programs would be there for her.

We will honor this promise. And the best way to do it is reform it for my generation.

You see, if you reform these programs for my generation, people 54 and below, you can guarantee they don't change for people in or near retirement, which is precisely what Mitt Romney and I are proposing.

Look what -- look what Obamacare does. Obamacare takes $716 billion from Medicare to spend on Obamacare. Even their own chief actuary at Medicare backs this up. He says you can't spend the same dollar twice. You can't claim that this money goes to Medicare and Obamacare.

RYAN: And then they put this new Obamacare board in charge of cutting Medicare each and every year in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors.

This board, by the way, it's 15 people, the president's supposed to appoint them next year. And not one of them even has to have medical training.

And Social Security? If we don't shore up Social Security, when we run out of the IOUs, when the program goes bankrupt, a 25 percent across-the-board benefit cut kicks in on current seniors in the middle of their retirement. We're going to stop that from happening.

They haven't put a credible solution on the table. He'll tell you about vouchers. He'll say all these things to try and scare people. Here's what we're saying: give younger people, when they become Medicare eligible, guaranteed coverage options that you can't be denied, including traditional Medicare. Choose your plan, and then Medicare subsidizes your premiums, not as much for the wealthy people, more coverage for middle-income people, and total out-of-pocket coverage for the poor and the sick.

Choice and competition. We would rather have 50 million future seniors determine how their Medicare is delivered to them instead of 15 bureaucrats deciding what, if, when, where they get it.

RADDATZ: Vice President Biden, two minutes.

BIDEN: You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems every vice presidential debate I hear this kind of stuff about panels.

But let's talk about Medicare. What we did is, we saved $716 billion and put it back, applied it to Medicare. We cut the cost of Medicare. We stopped overpaying insurance companies, doctors and hospitals. The AMA supported what we did. AARP endorsed what we did. And it extends the life of Medicare to 2024. They want to wipe this all out.

It also gave more benefits. Any senior out there, ask yourself: Do you have more benefits today? You do. If you're near the donut hole, you have $800 -- $600 more to help your prescription drug costs. You get wellness visits without co-pays. They wipe all of this out, and Medicare goes -- becomes insolvent in 2016, number one.

Number two, "guaranteed benefit"? It's a voucher. When they first proposed -- when the congressman had his first voucher program, the CBO said it would cost $6,400 a year, Martha, more for every senior, 55 and below, when they got there. He knew that, yet he got all the guys in Congress and women in the Republican Party to vote for it. Governor Romney, knowing that, said, I would sign it, were I there.

Who you believe, the AMA, me, a guy who's fought his whole life for this, or somebody who would actually put in motion a plan that knowingly cut -- added $6,400 a year more to the cost of Medicare?

Now they got a new plan: "Trust me, it's not going to cost you any more." Folks, follow your instincts on this one.

And with regard to Social Security, we will not -- we will not privatize it. If we had listened to Romney, Governor Romney, and the congressman during the Bush years, imagine where all those seniors would be now if their money had been in the market.

Their ideas are old and their ideas are bad, and they eliminate the guarantee of Medicare.

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5/6

[prometheus2us]

Did you like Paul Ryan's Dan Quail moment?
In the 1988 VP debate Dan Quayle, who had compared his level of experience to that of JFK prior to Kennedy becoming president. Bentsen's immediate reply: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
Tonight Ryan surprisingly decided to compare his radical conservative tax plan with Kennedy's and Biden immediately noticed the Quail connection and said "Now you're Jack Kennedy?"
What was with Ryan's long pause after the abortion question?

[prometheus2us]

Did you like Paul Ryan's Dan Quail moment?
In the 1988 VP debate Dan Quayle, who had compared his level of experience to that of JFK prior to Kennedy becoming president. Bentsen's immediate reply: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
Tonight Ryan surprisingly decided to compare his radical conservative tax plan with Kennedy's and Biden immediately noticed the Quail connection and said "Now you're Jack Kennedy?"
What was with Ryan's long pause after the abortion question?

[prometheus2us]

Did you like Paul Ryan's Dan Quail moment?
In the 1988 VP debate Dan Quayle, who had compared his level of experience to that of JFK prior to Kennedy becoming president. Bentsen's immediate reply: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
Tonight Ryan surprisingly decided to compare his radical conservative tax plan with Kennedy's and Biden immediately noticed the Quail connection and said "Now you're Jack Kennedy?"
What was with Ryan's long pause after the abortion question?

[NOSPINJUSTTRUTH]

I had looked forward to tonight's debate with moderator, Raddatz. As the ABC foreign correspondent, I was sure she would take charge of the debate. It was OUT-OF-CONTROL. Vice-President, Joe Biden was such a disgrace, rude and arrogant; I was so disappointed with his performance. Mr. Biden took so much time, and then, he over-talked the moderator and Congressman Ryan time-and-time again...and then, tried to convince the public he was not getting his time. We, the American people know how to tell TIME-we are not fooled. I wanted to listen to both sides-Joe Biden did not allow Martha Raddatz or Paul Ryan to talk. Joe Biden was frustrated and distressed and showed it through his outrageous behavior.

I think we have to tell ourselves the TRUTH--the Obama/Biden ticket lost again on this round. VP Biden did not help. It would have been better for Mr. Biden to stay quiet. When the debate was over, it was a relief. The whole debate was OUT-OF-CONTROL. You cannot spin this one for Biden--he was TOO unprofessional, and, DEFINITELY, not presidential!

[Premisiz]

shut up already. Pretty sure he came out on top of that one.

[Premisiz]

shut up already. Pretty sure he came out on top of that one.