'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.

 

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“We want to do this with the consent of the elected representatives of the people and figure out what loopholes should stay or go,”

I love this quote. It's clearly political CYA-speak. When congress lowers the tax rate for the wealthy without closing any of loopholes, R&R get to claim credit for the rate reduction and blame Congress for the revenue drop. See, they're already planning ahead for it.

  • 5 votes
Reply#79 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:04 PM EDT

Here's the reality of what four more years of Obama will bring. Going forward with Obama there will be 15% unemployment (real unemployment) for as far as we can see. 47 million people on food stamps he will have that up to 75 million. Gas at $4.00 a gallon and with his anti drilling campaign he will have gas up to $6.00 a gallon. Obama has ended medicare as we know it by taking over 700 billion to fund
Obamacare. The only way to save medicare is to repeal Obamacare. Lets run the national debt up another 5 or 6 trillion so we can bankrupt the country faster. And how about all the jobs being created right now. 96,000 a month whoopee. And last but not least he will tax those evil job creators to the point they will all move to China. We are going forward alright. The Obama nation is a total train wreck with no ideas...

  • 2 votes
Reply#80 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:04 PM EDT

If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you were not a racist, then vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you are not a moron.

  • 6 votes
Reply#81 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:05 PM EDT

Mychal Massie is a respected writer and talk show host in
Los Angeles .

The other evening on my twitter, a
person asked me why I didn't like the Obama's? Specifically I was asked: "I
have to ask, why do you hate the Obama's? It seems personal, not policy
related. You even dissed (disrespect) their Christmas family picture."

The truth is I do not like the Obamas,
what they represent, their ideology, and I certainly do not like his policies
and legislation. I've made no secret of my contempt for the Obamas. As I
responded to the person who asked me the aforementioned question, I don't like
them because they are committed to the fundamental change of my/our country into
what can only be regarded as a Communist state.

I don't hate them per definition, but
I condemn them because they are the worst kind of racialists, they are elitist
Leninists with contempt for traditional America . They display disrespect for
the sanctity of the office he holds, and for those who are willing to admit
same, Michelle Obama's raw contempt for white America is transpicuous.

I don't like them because they comport
themselves as emperor and empress. I expect, no I demand respect, for the
Office of President and a love of our country and her citizenry from the leader
entrusted with the governance of same. President and Mrs. Reagan displayed an
unparalleled love for the country and her people. The Reagan's made Americans
feel good about themselves and about what we could accomplish. His arrogance
by appointing 32 leftist czars and constantly bypassing congress is
impeachable. Eric Holder is probably the MOST incompetent and arrogant DOJ
head to ever hold the job. Could you envision President Reagan instructing his
Justice Department to act like jack-booted thugs?

Presidents are politicians and all
politicians are known and pretty much expected to manipulate the truth, if not
outright lie, but even using that low standard, the Obama's have taken lies,
dishonesty, deceit, mendacity, subterfuge and obfuscation to new depths. They
are verbally abusive to the citizenry, and they display an animus for
civility.

I do not like them, because they both
display bigotry overtly, as in the case of Harvard Professor Louis Gates, when
he accused the Cambridge Police of acting stupidly, and her code speak pursuant
to now being able too be proud of America . I view that statement and that
mindset as an insult to those who died to provide a country where a Kenyan, his
illegal alien relatives, and his alleged progeny, could come and not only live
freely, but rise to the highest, most powerful, position in the world. Michelle
Obama is free to hate and disparage whites because Americans of every
description paid with their blood to ensure her right to do same.

I have a saying, that "the only reason
a person hides things, is because they have something to hide." No president
in history has spent over a million dollars to keep his records and his past
sealed.

And what the two of them have shared
has been proved to be lies. He lied about when and how they met, he lied about
his mother's death and problems with insurance, Michelle lied to a crowd
pursuant to nearly $500,000 bank stocks they inherited from his family. He has
lied about his father's military service, about the civil rights movement, ad
nausea. He lied to the world about the Supreme Court in a State of the Union
address. He berated and publicly insulted a sitting Congressman. He has
surrounded himself with the most rabidly, radical, socialist academicians
today. He opposed rulings that protected women and children that even Planned
Parenthood did not seek to support. He is openly hostile to business and
aggressively hostile to Israel . His wife treats being the First Lady as her
personal American Express Black Card (arguably the most prestigious credit card
in the world). I condemn them because, as people are suffering, losing their
homes, their jobs, their retirements, he and his family are arrogantly showing
off their life of entitlement - as he goes about creating and fomenting class
warfare.

I don't like them, and I neither
apologize nor retreat from my public condemnation of them and of his policies.
We should condemn them for the disrespect they show our people, for his willful
and unconstitutional actions pursuant to obeying the Constitutional parameters
he is bound by, and his willful disregard for Congressional authority.

Dislike for them has nothing to do
with the color of their skin; it has everything to do with their behavior,
attitudes, and policies. And I have open scorn for their constantly playing
the race card.

It is my intention to do all within my
ability to ensure their reign is one term. I could go on, but let me conclude
with this. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the media for refusing to
investigate them, as they did President Bush and President Clinton, and for
refusing to label them for what they truly are. There is no scenario known to
man, whereby a white president and his wife could ignore laws, flaunt their
position, and lord over the people, as these two are permitted out of fear for
their color.

As I wrote in a syndicated column
titled, "Nero In The White House" - "Never in my life, inside or outside of
politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader. He is the
most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed. Even by the low
standards of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious
arrogance is unequalled. Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated
to sainthood... Many in America wanted to be proud when the first person of
color was elected president, but instead, they have been witness to a congenital
liar, a woman who has been ashamed of America her entire life, failed policies,
intimidation, and a commonality hitherto not witnessed in political leaders.
He and his wife view their life at our expense as an entitlement - while America
's people go homeless, hungry and unemployed."

  • 6 votes
Reply#82 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:05 PM EDT

Well said brother.

  • 2 votes
#82.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:11 PM EDT

baloney, and more baloney, nonsensical rant, riddled with hatred and animus. Maybe a respected right wing hater who appeals to that segment of our society, despicable, where was this person when nearly 5,000 Americans body bagged and tens of thousands of innocents slaughtered in a bogus war. Beck and Limbaugh elephant patoots.

Obama 2012

  • 3 votes
#82.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:16 PM EDT
honkychopDeleted
honkychopDeleted
Reply

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 and my apologies if some of them are your sons..

  • 3 votes
Reply#83 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:05 PM EDT
honkychopDeleted
Reply

And now the Great Deceiver is going to give US a math lesson? LMAO!!

  • 2 votes
Reply#84 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:05 PM EDT

As an independent voter and retired military (30 years of service). I had watched both conventions. The one thing that i noticed about the Democratic convention besides the energy of the audience was the diversity of the attendees. I sort of reflected on the country where my grand-kids will grow up and defend. This is the true US that we love and volunteer to serve. The point is: the Republicans are not a true reflection of our everyday lives. We need to stand for the meaning of the acronym "U.S", United States, just one body of people.

  • 6 votes
Reply#85 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:05 PM EDT

yea booing the word god and the capital of israel sure is diverse...by the way I guarantee there was little diversity of thought, these were all crazed left wing loons

  • 4 votes
#85.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:09 PM EDT

true:

You aren't helping your party's cause by these kinds of post. Not everybody believes in God...we are a secular country by design...freedom OF religion..that means you are free to believe who and want you want without reprisals. The republican party needs to start including more diversity because that is what America is...the melting pot of the world, not some inclusive, only believe like us world.

  • 3 votes
#85.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:17 PM EDT
Reply

Obama is an idiot.

  • 4 votes
Reply#86 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:07 PM EDT

wayne and you are boil on humanity's butt.

Obama 2012

  • 1 vote
#86.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:22 PM EDT
Reply

Surrendered tax returns has to do with how much he has paid in taxes. You can bet it wasn't enough or he would have, OH!!! That's right ...... someone stole them. How convenient was that?

  • 2 votes
Reply#87 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:08 PM EDT

He needs to trade the tax records for B0's school records, if there are any.

    #87.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:16 PM EDT
    honkychopDeleted
    Reply

    Every time I hear the name Willard, all I can think about is all those rats in the movie Willard. How appropriate that his parents gave him that name as he is a huge lying thieving RAT.

    Yes we do have a choice, between a proven President and a lying cheating rat named Willard who cannot do arithmetic.

    • 2 votes
    Reply#88 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:08 PM EDT
    honkychopDeleted
    Reply

    Oduma needs a math lesson and you liberals just need a lesson. Here's some math for you.I currently pay $82 every 2 weeks for health ins. When Oduma care hits ,it goes to $348 every 2 weeks. So what you got to say about that?Don't spew no lies either.

    • 1 vote
    Reply#89 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:08 PM EDT

    I've noticed that during the five years Romney has been running for president and now the Romney/Ryan team, refuse to be specific about anything at all. Trust us, they say. The only thing they seem to be able to do is follow Josef Goebels rule: tell the lie often enough and people will eventually believe it is the truth.

    These two clowns scare me to death- and I've been a conservative and voted republican for the past 35 years.

    • 2 votes
    Reply#90 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:08 PM EDT

    can you name one obozo specific??

    • 3 votes
    #90.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:10 PM EDT
    Reply

    Not only has Obama proved he's a liar, now he's proved how stupid he is or should I just say manipulative...The communist community organizer is up to the same rhetoric.

    You think those who create businesses in the private sector and hire people, like the poor if they want to work, and middle class, will continue to hire,if Obama continues his programs and regulations and attacking with class warfare?

    Obama needs to fat check himself right on out of the race

    • 2 votes
    Reply#91 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:09 PM EDT

    70% think they are worse off than they were 4 years ago. 65% think the economy would be better handled by Romney!!

    FACTS 101.

    • 3 votes
    #91.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:16 PM EDT
    Reply

    Give em hell President Obama ! Give those lying, cheating good for nothings hell ! Call em out ! They are the American Taliban who want to destroy government so that the rich can run things without opposition. Give em hell President Obama !

    • 1 vote
    Reply#92 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:09 PM EDT
    honkychopDeleted
    Reply

    Obama should clean up this own back yard.

    Obama/Biden out in 2012.

    • 4 votes
    Reply#93 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:10 PM EDT

    Mitt's plan is to pay down the deficit with his own money-so leave him be-he's a generous man!

    • 1 vote
    Reply#94 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:10 PM EDT

    4.39 gas, lowest labor partisipation in 30 years, 16 trillion in debt...isn't a lie

    • 3 votes
    Reply#95 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:11 PM EDT

    Yes we've seen how they would work with congress' its my way or no way at all.Dont need any more Tea Party obstructionism.

    • 1 vote
    Reply#96 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:12 PM EDT
    honkychopDeleted
    Reply

    ... we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions on new tax breaks for the wealthy

    Uh, Mr. President. I can't spend money I haven't gotten. The government doesn't "spend" money on tax breaks.

    Why do I have to explain these things to you.

      Reply#97 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:12 PM EDT

      dont bother, to the loons cutting taxes is risky government spending

        #97.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:14 PM EDT
        honkychopDeleted
        Reply

        Obama acts like a 12 year old spoiled brat. He has no answers to to his own failures or has no solutions as to how he'll fix this mess he's gotten us into ... so he throws a tantrum to try to distract people from talking to him about his disastrous 1st term??

        Barry ... we are on to you. You've screwed up the country in the last four years. Sorry to make you aware ... but Romney and Ryan weren't in office for the last 4 years?? So ... who you going to blame today for our bad economy, the millions out of work, the $16 trillion in deficit? You blaming Romney and Ryan or George W?? Make up your mind!!

        Sorry .... we're not buying what you're selling this time around!! Take your ball and go home.

        • 2 votes
        Reply#98 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:13 PM EDT

        If Obama gets re-elected, just look at the mess that has ocurred in the last 4 years he is going to inherit!

          #98.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:34 PM EDT
          honkychopDeleted
          Reply

          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 and my apologies if some of them are your sons.

            Reply#99 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:13 PM EDT

            So ... what is your religion speaking of cults?

              #99.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:16 PM EDT

              What an ignorant comment.

                #99.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:19 PM EDT
                honkychopDeleted
                Reply

                Obama, you azzhole, you're just worried about losing your job. You should talk, you moron, you haven't sat down once in four years to balance the budget. You have a hell of a nerve talking about being leary about Romney/Ryan, you and Joe are a couple of SMOE'S. You need to get yourself a job as a shoe salesman. I bet you can sell anyone a pair of shoes 4 times smaller than their foot, since you are a good BS artist. You're a disgrace to America....

                Romney/Ryan 2012

                • 1 vote
                Reply#100 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:14 PM EDT

                if raising taxes balances budgets? shouldn't illinois be balanced? they just raised taxes 66% two years ago

                • 2 votes
                Reply#101 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:15 PM EDT
                honkychopDeleted
                Reply

                We never heard a word about Kennedy's wealth. Suddenly it's a crime to be successful and rich.

                Obama doesn't want to be out a of job like so many Americans. Romney turned bad businesses into success. Let him turn Obama's mistakes into jobs for America.

                • 3 votes
                Reply#102 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:15 PM EDT

                Kennedy was wealthy and it was great but he was not greedy and believed in sharing his wealth. He did not become by stepping on poor people.

                • 3 votes
                #102.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:22 PM EDT

                Romney donated 16% to charity. He gave away all of the money that his father left him.

                Romney created jobs and saved businesses. Obama has never had a job.

                • 1 vote
                #102.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:25 PM EDT

                The Mormon church is not a charity and where do you get the information that he gave alway all his money? If he did he probably asked for a govt. loan to go into business.

                • 2 votes
                #102.3 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:48 PM EDT
                Reply
                honkychopDeleted

                I wish somebody would slap that Mitt eating grin off Willard's face. By the way the last thing on this earth that was named Willard was a RAT. I think there needs to be a movement t o get this POS to show his taxes. It would be over for him and to answer that moron that questions why we need to see his returns is WE DONT as long as he agrees not to run for leader of the free world. I am going to watch meet the press as soon as the NFL is over [ there must be priorities in this world] so I will be able to close my eyes tonight with some comedy . The next time Mitty says the president robbed medicare I hope he is standing under a tree during a lightning storm

                • 3 votes
                Reply#104 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:16 PM EDT

                why dont you try getting a job? constantly watching tv has obviously rotted your brain

                • 1 vote
                #104.1 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:19 PM EDT

                It must be terrible to be eaten up with Jealousey and a Liberal at the same time. The answer to your problem is in Oregon

                • 1 vote
                #104.2 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:21 PM EDT

                You're a moron.

                  #104.3 - Sun Sep 9, 2012 5:28 PM EDT
                  Reply
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