'Bad math': Obama slams Romney, Ryan for lack of specifics

In Florida, President Obama slammed Romney, arguing the GOP candidate's math doesn't add up. Meanwhile, a pizza parlor owner swept the president off his feet. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

 

 

MELBOURNE, Fla. – Hours after his opponents Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan did a Sunday morning TV show blitz, President Barack Obama criticized them for not offering more specifics on how they would keep revenue stable while not raising taxes on the wealthy.

“Governor Romney and his allies tell us that we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions on new tax breaks for the wealthy. Listen, you’ve got to do the math because when my opponents were asked about it today, they couldn’t. It was like two plus one equals five,” Obama told a crowd of more than 3,000 in a gymnasium at the Florida Institute of Technology here.

When asked during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” what tax loopholes he would eliminate, Romney got no more specific than telling host David Gregory, “high income taxpayers are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions.”


On ABC News’ “This Week,” Ryan said Romney and he would consult with Congress before deciding which loopholes to cut. “We want to do this with the consent of the elected representatives of the people and figure out what loopholes should stay or go,” he said.

Of their lack of specifics, Obama said, “That’s not bold leadership, that’s bad math.”  

Ever mindful of his local audience, Obama also focused heavily on Medicare, an important issue to the 17.6 percent of Florida’s population over age 65 – more than four percentage points over the national average.

He cited a new study by Harvard Professor David Cutler that found seniors who qualify for Medicare beginning in 2023 would see higher premiums over the course of their retirement under the Romney/Ryan plan, which would give seniors the option of getting a voucher to help pay for private insurance in addition to the traditional government-run program.

Cutler, one of the Obama campaign’s chief health care advisers in 2008, conducted the study on behalf of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal advocacy organization.

“Basically your profits would decline by the thousands so their profits could rise by the billions,” Obama said of the study’s conclusion.

The Romney campaign responded with a statement from spokesman Ryan Williams calling the study "discredited." 

"President Obama’s latest false attacks are a sign of desperation. Only one candidate in this race has robbed today’s Medicare of $716 billion to pay for Obamacare – Barack Obama. He has done nothing to reform Medicare for the long haul and prevent it from going bankrupt, and on his watch family health care premiums have increased by nearly $2,500," the statement read in part. 

In Melbourne, the president also mentioned another issue important to voters on this slice of Florida’s coast, whose economy is buoyed in part by the space industry.

“Here on the Space Coast, we started a new era of American exploration that is creating more jobs right here,” Obama said, noting the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars last month.

He warned that Republicans would stifle the research and development that his administration has encouraged.

“This is where we’ve got a choice. We could, as the House Republican budget proposes, cut back on research and technology or we can continue to be at the cutting edge because that’s what we’ve always been about,” he said.

The president is now on his way to West Palm Beach for the fourth and final stop on his two-day Sunshine State campaign swing, after which he’ll return to the White House – hopefully, he said this afternoon, in time to catch Sunday Night Football.

“We intend to be finished to get home in time for kickoff,” he told the crowd in Melbourne.

 

Discuss this post

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Mitt "F da Poor" Romney and Paul “Middle Class Warfare” Ryan are nothing more than Two “Howdy Doodie Political Puppets” sitting on da Koch Brothers and Sheldon Abelson’s Lap.

You BetCha....Fer Sure.

  • 5 votes
Reply#54 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:48 PM EDT

Hey Willard, I want to see your tax returns please.

P.S. as a Deacon of that cult you call a Religion could you please ask the retards that you send peddling their schwinns around my neighborhood to spew the Mormon propaganda to cease? If so you'll get my vote.

  • 2 votes
Reply#55 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:48 PM EDT

Funny thing about the "missionaries". My elderly folks live in a small town and said that haven't seen any come aroung for years, and suddenly this summer, they are coming by weekly. Supposedly they're "spreading the word", but it's pretty obvious that they're actually out there to remind people that Romney's a moron (I mean Mormon).

Really, this is working against his campaign, as a number of the folks I've talked to who've been visited by the missionaries have said it's influenced them to not vote for Romney.

  • 5 votes
#55.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:11 PM EDT
Reply

Before Mitt "F da Poor" Romney starts to Debate Obama..........he needs to finish da Debate with Himself.....LOL.

You BetCha....Fer Sure.

  • 2 votes
Reply#56 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:50 PM EDT

Mitt is about as Real as a Plastic Bananna!

Is it Mitt ____________Romney?

“Political Puppet”

“Taxes are for da Little People”

“I’m Not a Crook”

“Country Club”

“Middle Class Warfare”

“Not To Much..Out of Touch”

“Cheap Labor is Our Future”

“Outsourcing is Awesome”

“Just Tell me what ya Wanna Hear”

“Profits Over People”

“Corporations are People Too”

“Just Trust Me”

“F da Poor”

“No Substance”

“Let Detroit go Bankrupt”

“National Right to Work”

“Swiss Accounts”

“Flip Flop”

“Pray da Gay Away”

Mitt Romney’s Solution to all Problems…….Prayer and a Moment of Silence.

Da Biggest Threat to Mitt Romney’s Campaign……..da Truth!

  • 2 votes
Reply#57 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:50 PM EDT

Obama slams Romney for "lack of specifics"? What a hypocrite! Obama hasn't had anything specific since he got into office. How is a lack of a budget for the last three years, as required by the Constitution suit you for "lack of specifics"? He has no plan to pull us out of this other than to raise taxes on the rich, which will not work.

Here are some "specifics" about Romney:

- He started and ran a successful business that helped create and save thousands of jobs.

- He was successful as a governor of a state, balancing its budget and improving education for his state to the best in the country.

- He successfully saved the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and made it profitable.

How's that? I could go on and on. I will go with the candidate with the winning record any day, regardless of whether he is a Republican or a Democrat. Romney is a PROVEN winner. Obama is a FAILURE, just blowing a lot of hot air around like he did four years ago when he lied to win the Presidency. Specifics on Obama?-- $16 trillion in debt; 8%+ unemployment for a record 43 months; no balanced budget, let alone any budget at all; and no plan to fix anything.

Please, please vote Obama out in November!

    #57.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 9:08 PM EDT
    Reply

    humingbird.........do you have a job? If so, how much are you willing to give to pick up the downtrodden and those that have the need for help? How much will you put in the pot? Where does it stop? What amount per american is too much? Put a dollar on it. Do you really believe the governement should decide how much you contrbute to charity?

    • 1 vote
    Reply#58 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:51 PM EDT
    Comment author avatarJT-910754Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

    Jennifer Rene "Feisty Redhead" Psaki must have given the Communist Obama good head when she was the Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States and the Deputy White House Communications Director. Obviously, she can't provide much else when she opens her mouth to spout off like a Communist on here. The election is about Obama's record of incompetence and nothing else!!!

    Save America!!! Defeat Communist Obama and his Communist supporters . . . Romney / Ryan will be elected by Patriotic Americans in 2012.

    • 2 votes
    Reply#59 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:52 PM EDT
    Comment author avatarFuzzy-0457Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

    JT-910754

    Agreed! Feisty is nothing but a communist loud mouth CU*T!! At her best. A vote for Obama is a vote for socialism and communism. Take your choice libs. But first you must learn about the two! Liberalism=Mental Disease, which might be covered by your Obama care before it is too costly.

    • 1 vote
    #59.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:57 PM EDT

    JT You probably hate women who can think for themselves right. You are probably one of those guys who think a woman should be pregnant and keep her mouth shut? Secure men are not threatened by a woman who can think.

    • 12 votes
    #59.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:59 PM EDT
    Comment author avatarJT-910754Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

    Prog.1

    Please show us more of your ignorance! I'm a woman, you ASS-Hole!!! And I'm a Lesbian, too . . . so go stick that up your ignorant ASS and smoke @!$%# . . . just like your GOD, Obama! LOL!!!

    • 1 vote
    #59.3 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:03 PM EDT

    Why would any woman vote for a conservative when the conservatives did not want women to have the right to vote. Are you aware of the demonstrations that it took by liberal women to get the right to vote? Conservatives said it destroy our country if women were allowed to vote?

    • 8 votes
    #59.4 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:08 PM EDT

    JT-910754,

    No one gives a hoot if you're a woman. . . or a lesbian. . . or an alien!

    BTW: your crudeness is showing in the garbage you spouted in your first post and the foul language in your second.

    And Fuzzy-0457, you're right down there with JT-910754 in the vile language, too.

    • 2 votes
    #59.5 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 8:32 PM EDT
    Reply

    Republican TeaBilly Conservatives are willing to Ruin the Country and Sacrifice the Economy until they can get back in Power. Why do you think they have been the Party of No for so long.

    “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” ~Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, (R-Ky.), October 2010

    Eric Cantor is still da Biggest “Weasel in Politics”.

    John Boehner is One Real Big “Puzzy”.

    Wouldn’t Mitch McConnell make da Perfect “Turtle Head”?

    You BetCha….Fer Sure.

    • 5 votes
    Reply#60 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:52 PM EDT

    Folks just Remember,

    Anything Romney, Ryan, Boehner, Cantor, or McConnell Do will have an Evil, Hidden Agenda against the “Middle Class”.

    Republican TeaBilly Conservatives only Believe in “Middle Class Warfare’ and Protecting da Wealthy and Corporations.

    It won’t be long till they show their True Colors.

    You BetCha…..Fer Sure.

    • 7 votes
    Reply#61 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:54 PM EDT

    jstdafacts; Prayer and a moment of silence served this country for 200 years,

    That seems to be the missing element now! Greed and liberalism rules today!

    • 3 votes
    Reply#62 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:55 PM EDT

    Greed is greed, and libs want to give your money to the poor. How can these two things rule at the same time?

    • 1 vote
    #62.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:04 PM EDT

    Bill have you been praying for the liberals?

    • 1 vote
    #62.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:13 PM EDT
    Reply

    Romney & Ryan are all talk; they say they will do this and do that but never say how they will do it ????

    • 7 votes
    Reply#63 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:56 PM EDT

    pldp19-799961

    Romney & Ryan are all talk; they say they will do this and do that but never say how they will do it ????

    Look at who is calling the kettle black. Obama is the biggest LIAR that has stepped into the WH. You are a true liberal moron to say the least.

      #63.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:01 PM EDT
      Reply

      califorianpagen- I was thinking the same thing, Obama counters statements, or anything else, would have sufficed.

      But the press is part of this dialog problem, they like the fights not dialogs and discussions

      Hey when snooki, and Sara Palin are headline news, we know that there is no such things as real journalists left..

      When Fox news (faux noise) is in charge of the dialog, we have already driven off the cliff.

      • 1 vote
      Reply#64 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:56 PM EDT

      Yes it's true. No specifics. And where there are, there is the problem with math - arithmetic as clinton would say. But it is no different from soooo many of the mr grover, gop, rushbo, & foxnews.com candidates for the house and senate. Don't forget. Like last year - obama needed the help in congress. I tell you congress, especially the house, have the same attitude - my way or the highway. And they don't give many specifics and when they do the math doesn't add up.

      And watch the 9 11 video again.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfdOwt2v3Y

      I tell you cheney's order had to have been don't shoot the attacking plane down because the military man would have asked his order still stand question at 50 miles and not 10 miles if it had been otherwise. A terrible decision say sooo many because 200 military died because of the incoming aircraft was not shot down.

      Ok. Ok. And i heard last nite Philip Marshall, cia agent & airline pilot, talk about 911 and his many books including false flag 911. And how he finds abundant evidence implicating a nexus of Saudi officials, American contractors and, most unthinkably, members of the Bush administration. But don't forget, the reason why mr grover, the gop, the rushbo, & foxnews.com got away with 911 was because they had control of both the house and senate. I tell you obama needs all the help he can get in congress.

      • 1 vote
      Reply#65 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:56 PM EDT

      The problem with America is that government is too small. Everything comes from government. The bigger the better. You still have to pay for it. We need a national sales tax. 10% would be good to start. Need that to go on internet purchases, also. We have sin taxes but nothing for obsesity. This causes all kinds of heath issues. We need a fat tax. Fat people are not paying their share. Put a scales at the check out and increase that base 10% according to a fat index.

        Reply#66 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:57 PM EDT

        No, we need a Communist Idiot tax . . . LOL!!!

        • 1 vote
        #66.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:59 PM EDT

        JT-910754

        Won't make much, since the idiots are on Welfare and Food Stamps. Might have to have it taken out of there check!

          #66.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:03 PM EDT

          You don't have a real job do you? Didn't think so.

          • 1 vote
          #66.3 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:03 PM EDT

          Fuzzy, it's a sales tax so it gets collected everytime they purchase.

          Bill, I own my own business. That means I work 70+ hours.

          • 1 vote
          #66.4 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:07 PM EDT
          Reply

          There was The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly....and Clint shot their arguments for four more years full of holes. They went to their convention sick at heart with only the rabble rousers to lead them, and they tried to defy God by rejecting his inclusion in their platform. The nation saw, and the nation will remember come November, and the Good will win. The Ugly, and the Bad, will lose, and Clint, Mitt, and Paul held the smoking guns, but it was the people who furnished the ammo in the form of lots of votes....and so it was in the year of our Lord November 2012.

          • 3 votes
          Reply#67 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:57 PM EDT

          Open Letter to Willard,

          Hey Willard, I want to see your tax returns please.

          P.S. as a Deacon of that cult you call a Religion could you please ask the retards that you send peddling their schwinns around my neighborhood to spew the Mormon propaganda to cease? If so you'll get my vote. Thank You.

          • 4 votes
          Reply#68 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:58 PM EDT

          He will, but only when Obama and the Demon-crats can prove Communist Obama is not an Illegal Alien . . . LOL!!!

          • 1 vote
          #68.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:00 PM EDT

          willie53

          Hey idiot. The IRS has already checked Romney out and he is fine. What the heck is the liberals problem besides being slow, uneducated, no common sense, no job, FREE LOADING, off TRUE AMERICANS? It's Obama that has REFUSED and paid millions to hide his entire life. Ask your Messiah for his papers!

            #68.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:07 PM EDT
            Reply

            Well, let's see. We could borrow more money we don't have like we have for the last 3+ years. Oh, no, that's the Obama plan. If you always do what you always did, you always get what you"ve always got. Has anyone else had enough of this plan yet???? Can't even lead well enough to get a budget passed. We need a CHANGE. (pun intended)

              Reply#69 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:58 PM EDT

              By NBC's Ali Weinberg use of the adjective "SLAMS" is a bit more harsh the word they use in the first sentence - "CRITICIZE". Seems the reporters are going for the most "hits" on their stupid tweets than to report more factual information to us! Shame on them.

              Shame on NBC for allowing them to make things more divisive than simply reporting the facts - at least a little more objectively.

              • 3 votes
              Reply#70 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:58 PM EDT

              From what I heard of B0's speech, "Hope and Change" are gone, now it's just "Hope" , I hope you will vote for me. I'm ready for a change, let B0 go back to Chicago and help Rom with the drive by problem.

              • 2 votes
              Reply#71 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:58 PM EDT

              obozo? Im really happy with 4.50 gas, keep up the good work

              • 1 vote
              Reply#72 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:58 PM EDT

              Get Obama out.. Please. HE cant count. never has been able to and then to lie and act like he has been giving answers to his numbers.. cut me a break. Ryan gave all the answers this morning and he made NORA have to shut up because she was mis speaking and knew it. He explained exactly what he had done in congress and what they were going to do. They cant say everything until they are given the real numbers, because Obama is lying about them. So until Obama stops lying to the American people they cant say for sure. Romney is going to tear Obama a new butt hole in the debates, i can not wait. and as far as biden goes,, he is a joke all on his own.

                Reply#73 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 4:59 PM EDT

                if obozo can get 350,000 people to leave the work force every month, unemployment will soon be 0

                • 1 vote
                Reply#74 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:00 PM EDT

                We as Americans have every right to fire incomptent people! Vote against the people you don't believe are doing the job you expected them to do. Vote for people you believe will do the job by changing the way it's being done.

                  Reply#75 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:00 PM EDT

                  i want much higher gas prices... 4 more for obozo

                    Reply#76 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:01 PM EDT

                    It riles me to no end to hear the Republicans try and hang our economic woes on Obama. They scream about a 16 trillion dollar deficit but fail to remember that Bush Jr. ran up 12 trillion of it before mercifully leaving office. The sinister plot of the Republican party since Reagan is to run up huge deficits to pay for tax cuts and unneeded military hikes and then to claim that social programs are bankrupting the country. Their goal is to change soc sec, medicare and education into voucher systems and they willl do whatever it takes to sink these programs so there is no other choice. These guys have one priority-- increasing the wealth of their already wealthy friends.

                    • 7 votes
                    Reply#77 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:03 PM EDT

                    Republicans would rather spend the money killing innocent people in unnecessary wars.

                    • 2 votes
                    #77.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:16 PM EDT
                    Reply

                    This is all Obama has. To blame some one else. Wasn't it Obama that made a promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Instead he added 35% more to the deficit. Looks to me like he is the one with bad math.

                    • 3 votes
                    Reply#78 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:04 PM EDT

                    You want to keep two things in mind. (1) That estimate about cutting the deficit (which you should cite) was issued by Obama's economic advisors before the extent of the economic damage was understood.

                    (2) Of the amount you claim he added to the deficit, some was mandated by Congress before Obama took office.

                    • 5 votes
                    #78.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:13 PM EDT
                    honkychopDeleted

                    You're the one with the bad math. The 4 trillion added by Obama is only 25%, not 35% of 16 trillion, but it doesn't surprise me. The Republicans and their supporters have spent the last several months putting words in the president's mouth and fudging the facts. Their behavior is is shameless and smacks of desperation for if the Republicans lose this election, one has to wonder what election they CAN win.

                    • 2 votes
                    #78.3 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 9:00 PM EDT
                    Reply
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