Ryan to meet with Sheldon Adelson in Las Vegas
(CBS News) LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is scheduled to hold a private event on Tuesday evening in Las Vegas that reportedly includes GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson. But the event isn't a fundraiser; an aide said Ryan will take part in a meeting with Mitt Romney's Nevada Finance Leadership team that was scheduled before Romney tapped him as his running mate.
The Romney campaign hasn't always had a smooth relationship with Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who spent millions of dollars backing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the GOP primary campaign. He has turned his support to Romney during the general election, and hosted a fundraiser for Romney during his recent trip to Israel.
The event, which will be held at the Venetian Hotel, will be closed to the news media. Romney generally has permitted coverage of fundraising events held in public venues, but an aide said the rule didn't apply in Ryan's case because the event isn't a fundraiser.
In Lakewood, Colo., Ryan focused on the issue of energy. A top priority for a Romney administration, he said, will be to "make sure that we use our own energy because we have our own energy in this country." Lakewood is a suburb of Jefferson County, which has swung between voting Republican and Democratic in the past.
He sought to tie President Obama to gas prices -- which are down from a high earlier this year -- by telling the story of spending more than $100 to fill up his Chevy SUV and being cut off by the pump before the car is full. He also charged the administration with intentionally seeking to raise energy prices to make it harder to use American resources; administration officials have responded to similar past claims by noting that domestic energy production has soared in recent years.
"The EPA has given us an unprecedented barrage of burdens and regulations," Ryan told a cheering crowd of over 2,000 gathered in a high school gym. "[Obama] has 10 different agencies and four offices regulating hydraulic fracking. We think Coloradoans know how to take care of this themselves. We want you to be in charge."
Still, he offered virtually no specific policy proposals aside from a promise to approve creation of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
The Romney campaign is also going on the offensive on the Medicare debate. On Tuesday afternoon, it released an ad that accuses Obama of cutting $716 billion from Medicare to pay for the Affordable Care Act. Unmentioned in the ad is the fact that the Republican budget authored by Ryan similarly caps Medicare spending. To cap per-beneficiary spending, Obama's law tasks an independant board with cutting provider rates if necessary, while the Ryan budget would cap shift costs to beneficiaries by requiring them to pay higher premiums out of pocket.
While Ryan's proposed entitlement reforms are largely perceived to be the area that leaves him most vulnerable to attacks on Democrats, Romney's campaign is addressing the issue head on.
"We're the ones who are offering a plan to save Medicare, to protect Medicare, to strengthen Medicare. We're the ones who are not raiding Medicare to pay for Obamacare. We're the ones who are repealing President Obama's 15 person bureaucratic board that will put price controls on Medicare that will lead to denied care for current seniors. We're the ones continuing the guarantee of Medicare for people in or near retirement" Ryan said in an interview with Fox News that aired in part Tuesday afternoon. "That's why I think this is a debate we want to have, and that's a debate we're going to win."
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A catholic who rejects the teachings of Jesus Christ for the philosophy of atheist Ayn Rand. Nice pick Mitt
My fellow Americans:
Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.
This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
...
IV.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present ... and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
...
Here's a little tip on what to expect. That way you can practice a bit before you get to Vegas-
That's a good boy Ryan. Roll over. Sit up. Speak! Good Boy!
Bark! Good Boy! That's a good Boy Ryan!
You're going to do just fine! Here's another 25 million.
Now go build my new embassy in Jerusalem.