what paul ryan is, and this is not a bad thing necessarily, he s a conservative reformer. he has had a very consistent vision during his career, both as a staffer in congress and later as a congressman about how to reshape the relationship between the federal government and its citizens and the main way he wants to do that is to make the citizens not have that much of a relationship with the government. so behind the medicaid cuts is a plan to give medicaid entirely over to the states, cut it very badly. but then turn it entirely over to the states. so there s really no federal role almost at all. medicare gets moved over to mainly private insurers. his tax reform plan would drastically change who the tax code helps and doesn t help. the social security privatization trying to turn social security over to wall street. there s a very consistent vision here. but it s not primarily a vision about the budget. his great genius was in finding that he get programs that people would be think a
intend to spend it. spend it he did. bush made the stark admission. to the press corps. just after the 20 2004 election, you had an enviable balance of capital and strong mandate. would to make that claim today? i would say i am spending that capital on the war. up only did plummeting support for the award, but he also over reached with the social security privatization. his efforts collapsed under the weight of the other issue. they bundled the response to hurricane katrina. when they nominated him, republicans did not even fall in line. the publicly called him unqualified after three weeks he was forced to withdraw. shortly before he left office, they had sunk to a miserable 27%.
and now i intend to spend it. spend it he did. just 16 months later, bush made this stark admission to the press corps. just after the 2004 e lexz, you seemed to claim an enviable balance. i say i m spending that capital on the war. not only did plum etting support with the second term agenda, but he also overreached with the social security privatization and then collapsed under the wait of the under issues. the administration bungled the response for hurricane katrina to the point that when bush nominated har yet myers, republicans didn t fall in line. many privately and publicly called and forced to withdraw her nomination. bush s approval rating had dropped to a miserable 47%.
congressman ryan that money would have gone away in market. look, i think if you rely on snore yes or no. if you rely on social security privatization, look what would have happened in late 2008 to somebody who had invested all of their money in the stock market. you would have seen huge crash in that account. bret: the difference is what the president said in the first debate about social security. listen to this quickly. with regard to social security, we will not bret: president obama said you know i suspect on social security we have a somewhat similar position. here he says it right here. i suspect on social security we ve got somewhat similar position. social security is structurally sound. it will have to be tweaked the way it was by ronald reagan
vice presidential debate really has consequence in the election. but there was a softening up here that really sets the stage and hopefully he ll live up to it for the president to come in and do a knockout or some kind of knockout tuesday. i think that, you saw my introduction there. i think that the privatization of social security has been waiting in the wings as a very potent domestic issue for the democrats. they haven t much touched it although it is there in ryan s records. i don t know if last night means they re going to go with it. they certainly have room to go with it after his answers. i also think the stuff on the war was a bit of a commander in chief test and i think paul ryan was terrifyingly vacant and incoherent on that subject. i thought those were the most important things. they re both very important. on the social security privatization, that is a ball waiting to be hit out of the park. you work through a scenario in the privatized social security. you could h