fight in montana between incumbent senate democrat john walsh and republican congressman, steve danes. congressman danes voting record ranks him as the single most conservative congressman that his state has sent to the house since world war ii. was even ahead of congressman danes locking up the committee, they were running against congressman danes one of the starkest, hardest hitting ads that i have seen any democrat do on any issue this whole year. look at this ad out of montana. i m john walsh and i approve this message. i was raped when i was 14 years old. i know the pain it caused me. that s why it s so insulting that congressman steve daines sponsored a bill to make abortion illegal for victims of sexual assault. he s even proposed making womens criminals for having an abortion. ultimately, i got the support i
john walsh, the junior democratic senator from montana, the one who has the same haircut as the senior senator from montana, john walsh, the guy on the left here, he s only been in office for about four months. he was sworn in in february, after being appointed to fill the seat left empty when max baucus became ambassador to china. but now, less than 120 days after getting the job in the first place, senator walsh is having to get going on his re-election campaign, which is kind of really is his election campaign, since even though he s the incumbent, he never ever actually had to run to win that seat. that said, senator walsh of montana had no problem winning the democratic primary last night. given the results of the republican primary last night in montana, we now know that the general election in november is going to be a big purple state fight in montana between incumbent senate democrat john walsh and republican congressman, steve danes. congressman danes voting record ranks him
come on together, we like to have a little bipartisan back and forth here. congressman danes, let me start with you on the ryan budget. and i do this because in montana, republican circles, it was a little bit unclear where some republicans stood. as you new york the man at the top of your ticket after mitt romney was denny reberg, the person you replaced in congress. where did you stand on the ryan budget during your campaign? i support the ryan plan and ended up winning by 11 points in montan 1/2. i have two 94-year-old grandmothers who depend on medicare every day. my folks are on medicare, very, very important that we promised our seniors that we weren t going to take away these important benefits, safety net but importantly, i m father of four kids and we needed to have a serious adult conversation, how to reform these systems in a responsible manner.
and you came to the table with a set of assumptions in the kind of context that his assumptions are in, people would either laugh at you what s a specific assumption? unemployment. i haven t looked hits new proposal today, in his past budgets, he has assumed that unemployment went down to a level we have never seen in this country. you can make budgets look terrific if you assume completely unrealistic assumptions. and again, in the private sector, would you never be able to get away with that, assumes unemployment goes down to levels never been at, assumes tax revenues go up, doesn t indicate how that happens but generally speaking reducing taxes and assumes government spending gets down to levels we have never seen even for defense by itself. what sal legitimate target date for a balanced budget before i go back to congressman danes? we have to do three things to change the trajectory. we need comprehensive entitlement reform.
entitlement. the president is not there but i think where democrats need to go when we layer in additional revenues for things like the buffet rule and then leak at spending for both discretionary and defense, i think we can start coming one the right trajectory for our budget and have a date that it balances in the future. the american people do want the budget to balance but they also want their representatives to be honest with them, the assumptions embedded in the budget. right now the congressman congressman ryan s budget doesn t have honest assumptions. congressman danes, a grand bargain, what are some things you think your party is going to have to come to grips with if you are going to get the entitlement reform, for instance that a lot of republicans like too see? the good news, hearing from john today and me as well, as two freshmen, we want to sit down at the table and have a serious discussion about reforms in these important systems. let s remember, we have not seen