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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Debate night chat thread [View all]avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)167. Here is the transcript.
LEHRER: All right? All right. This is segment three, the economy. Entitlements. First -- first answer goes to you, two minutes, Mr. President. Do you see a major difference between the two of you on Social Security?
OBAMA: You know, I suspect that, on Social Security, we've got a somewhat similar position. Social Security is structurally sound. It's going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Speaker -- Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill. But it is -- the basic structure is sound.
But -- but I want to talk about the values behind Social Security and Medicare, and then talk about Medicare, because that's the big driver of our deficits right now.
You know, my grandmother -- some of you know -- helped to raise me. My grandparents did. My grandfather died a while back. My grandmother died three days before I was elected president. And she was fiercely independent. She worked her way up, only had a high school education, started as a secretary, ended up being the vice president of a local bank. And she ended up living alone by choice.
And the reason she could be independent was because of Social Security and Medicare. She had worked all her life, put in this money, and understood that there was a basic guarantee, a floor under which she could not go.
And that's the perspective I bring when I think about what's called entitlements. You know, the name itself implies some sense of dependency on the part of these folks. These are folks who've worked hard, like my grandmother, and there are millions of people out there who are counting on this.
OBAMA: So my approach is to say, how do we strengthen the system over the long term? And in Medicare, what we did was we said, we are going to have to bring down the costs if we're going to deal with our long-term deficits, but to do that, let's look where some of the money's going.
$716 billion we were able to save from the Medicare program by no longer overpaying insurance companies by making sure that we weren't overpaying providers. And using that money, we were actually able to lower prescription drug costs for seniors by an average of $600, and we were also able to make a -- make a significant dent in providing them the kind of preventive care that will ultimately save money through the -- throughout the system.
So the way for us to deal with Medicare in particular is to lower health care costs. When it comes to Social Security, as I said, you don't need a major structural change in order to make sure that Social Security is there for the future.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57525691/transcript-first-2012-presidential-debate-part-1/?pageNum=8&tag=page
Obama's first words should have been to correct Lehrer regarding Lehrer's packaging Social Security as an entitlement.
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Anyone else find that there has been more anticipation for this debate than in 2008?
TroyD
Oct 2012
#17
Cant wait for these Zingers he prepared. The only substance he got are those zingers.
Tcbys
Oct 2012
#31
I can't remember the last time i was so nervous about a presidential debate....
desertduck
Oct 2012
#39
A set of Goals are meaning less unless you have an ACTUAL PLAN to achieve those goals.
Tcbys
Oct 2012
#45
No, you are right. He got right up there and with a straight face said he won't cut taxes on rich.
Atypical Liberal
Oct 2012
#61
Finally a topic that Obama has a strength in. Obama is more stronger in issues like this.
Tcbys
Oct 2012
#77
I started thinking bi polar as soon as Ann said she was worried about his mental health
genna
Oct 2012
#139
OMG...Mittens just keeps talking over the President and old Jim is letting him get away with it...
SoapBox
Oct 2012
#97
Mr. Obama, please emphasize again that all that bailout $ was paid back! n/t
Beartracks
Oct 2012
#104
Is it just my imagination, or is Mitt being given a lot more "passes" than Obama???
mak3cats
Oct 2012
#125
Not just us! Ed Schultz is on FIRE over the Prez not getting in there and fighting...
SoapBox
Oct 2012
#152