Video: Romney, Ryan play offense on Medicare in 60 Minutes appearance

◼ (T)he 60 Minutes audience got a chance to see this swipe at the Mediscaring that had already begun over the weekend after Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan for his running mate. It turns out that Ryan and Romney both agree that the best defense is a good offense:



Romney answered critics who say Ryan’s Medicare plan will hurt the ticket’s chances, especially in Florida.

“There’s only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare,” Romney said.

“What Paul Ryan and I have talked about is saving Medicare, is providing people greater choice in Medicare, making sure it’s there for current seniors. No changes, by the way, for current seniors, or those nearing retirement. But looking for young people down the road and saying, “We’re going to give you a bigger choice.” In America, the nature of this country has been giving people more freedom, more choices. That’s how we make Medicare work down the road.”

This is the part that readers claim was edited out of the broadcast, which if true would be journalistic malpractice:

Ryan added, “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they’ve organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger. And we think these reforms are good reforms. That have bipartisan origins. They started from the Clinton commission in the late ’90s.”