Levin cut Ryan off to point out that spending increases under the agreement are “immediate” while spending reductions are “over time,” which means “we may never see them.”
“That’s not true,” Ryan replied. “This is unfortunately the nature of what we call mandatory spending. For instance, I’m saying right away federal employees…are going to have to pay more for some of their pensions. That law changes now, but over time it accumulates a lot of savings.”
After allowing Ryan to elaborate, Levin spoke his mind.
“This is really Mickey Mouse,” he said. “I don’t mean to be offensive. You’re claiming a $23 billion savings on the deficit and increasing spending by, what, the same amount in the next two years?”
Ryan argued the federal government will save $85 billion and “give back” to the sequester $63 billion.
“We have a $90 trillion unfunded liability that goes up about $7 trillion a year. We have $17.3 trillion fiscal operating debt — and the Democrats wouldn’t let you really address that would they?” Levin asked.“That’s right,” Ryan responded.With President Barack Obama in the White House, the congressman explained, it is unlikely that Congress will be able to fix the country’s fiscal problems. Obama is not “willing and able to do that,” he added. However, Ryan said it is in the nation’s best interest to avoid another shutdown and keep the focus on the important issues like Obamacare and the IRS.“You guys are all worked up about that,” Levin said of a potential government shutdown. “Lots of us don’t really care about that.”
Levin is one of those who understand we can no longer have one subatomic particle of tolerance for the argument that "you have to understand Washington culture and be realistic about what you can accomplish on any given initiative." Rather, we must take our cue from Winston Churchill, who said, "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."
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