The two vice-presidential candidates debated at Kentucky’s Centre College Wednesday night to discuss domestic and foreign policy.
Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, both laid out their arguments for why their party’s presidential candidate should be the next president.
Ryan said new leadership was needed in the White House due to President Barack Obama’s poor performance on the economy.
“President Obama, he had his chance,” Ryan said in his closing statements. “His economic agenda – more spending, more borrowing, higher taxes and a government takeover of health care – is not working. … This is not what a real recovery looks like. You deserve better.”
Biden disagreed with Ryan on the president’s jobs record and contrasted their efforts in “level[ing] the playing field” with Romney’s dismissal of 47 percent of the nation as people who “won’t take responsibility” for their lives.
He noted those people are the average American like his parents and neighbors, and when those people get an “even shot,” they succeed.
With the growing federal debt, a large part of the conversation centered on each party’s tax plans.
When asked by the moderator on specific loopholes Romney and Ryan would cut to raise revenues, Ryan said they would work with Congress to determine them.
“Look at what Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did,” Ryan said. “They worked together out of a framework to lower tax rates and broaden the base, and they worked together to fix that. What we’re saying here is our framework. … We want to work with Congress on how best to achieve this.”
Part of that framework, Ryan said, was to lower tax rates by 20 percent and getting rid of approximately $1.1 trillion in tax deductions. Those loophole eliminations would mainly affect higher earners, he said.
As Ryan gave an example of Reagan working with Congress, Biden said he was there at the time and said Reagan gave specifics in what deductions he would cut.
Biden called the Romney-Ryan tax plan “not mathematically possible,” which Ryan disputed by saying six studies have shown the “math adds up.” Biden said his opponent’s tax plan would harm programs for middle-class families, such as health care deductions, mortgage deductions and tuition deductions.
University of Wisconsin College Republicans spokesperson Ryan Hughes said he was pleased with Ryan’s focus on turning a weak economy around.
“Ryan showed he understood the issues better than Biden did,” Hughes said. “Ryan really showed everyone we should be talking about the debt crisis that’s going to affect young voters. Economic growth is also very slow under Obama, and the unemployment rate is another thing we are worried about as students.”
UW College Democrats Chair Chris Hoffman said the debate showed Obama and Biden will always be honest with voters, unlike the Republican ticket.
Students for Obama Chair Peter Anich agreed with Hoffman, adding Ryan did not give specifics last night and contrasting both party’s visions.
“We saw Ryan pressed for specifics numerous times,” Anich said. “You’ve got the president’s plan, which is working, or you can go with the Republican plan, which is a mix of the old failed policies of the past and who knows what – whatever Mitt Romney decides for today.”
