Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, faced off in the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2012 election, engaging in several testy exchanges over their roadmaps for the country.
An energetic Biden went on the offensive in the wake of what was widely seen as a poor debate performance from President Barack Obama last week. He often grinned, threw his hands in the air and even interrupted at times when Ryan responded to the moderators’ questions.
Ryan was much more reserved but did not hesitate to go back and forth with Biden throughout the lively 90-minute debate moderated by Martha Raddatz of ABC News.
The vice president attacked Ryan for comments Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney that the 47 percent of Americans who do not pay income tax “do not take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” which Obama refrained from doing in last Wednesday’s debate.
“These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors,” Biden said. “They pay more effective tax than Gov. Romney pays in his federal income tax.”
Ryan responded by saying a Romney “cares about the 100 percent in this country” and that just about everyone has suffered under the failed leadership of the Obama administration.
"The economy is barely limping along," Ryan said. “This is not what a real recovery looks like.
Ryan also slammed the Obama administration for failing to take adequate steps to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities and its response to the attack on the American embassy in Lybia last month, which resulted in the death of a U.S. ambassador.
"What we are watching on our TV screens in the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy," Ryan said.
But Biden disregarded many Ryan’s claims about the administration’s actions abroad as falsehoods.
“With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Biden said in one of the most memorable lines of the night. “Not a single thing he said is accurate.”
As for the war in Afghanistan, Biden was adamant about withdrawing U.S. troops by 2014. Ryan said he agreed generally with that timeline, but said a Romney administration would not publicize a specific date as to avoid tipping of the country’s enemies.
When the debate shifted to taxes, Biden appeared to veer slightly from the official campaign line. Obama has pushed for allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on individuals earning $250,000 or more a year, but Biden said Thursday night he wants an increase in the federal income tax rate from 36 percent to 39.6 percent only on those with an annual income of more than $1 million.
Nevertheless, he echoed Obama’s criticism that the GOP would rather see taxes increased on the middle class than the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthy.
"They're holding hostage the middle class tax cut to the super wealthy," Biden said.
But Ryan said raising taxes on millionaires would negatively affect small businesses that file as individuals. Instead, he advocated for comprehensive tax reform, including lower tax rates across the board and the closing of certain loopholes to avoid adding to the deficit.
The two also tussled over the future of entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. Biden claimed Ryan wants to completely overhaul the program and change it to a voucher system, which would require senior to pay more out of their own pocket for health care.
Ryan, however, said Obama and Biden gutted $716 billion fro Medicare to help fund the president’s signature domestic achievement his first term in office, the Affordable Care Act, threatening the program’s long-term stability.
“They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar turning Medicare into a piggy bank for ObamaCare,” Ryan said.
Biden and Ryan, both devoted Catholics, clashed on abortion towards the end of the debate. While he believes life begins at conception, Biden said he does not want to impose his view on others, adding the decision should remain between a woman and her doctor.
"I do not believe we have a right to tell other people, women, that we have a right to control their body," Biden said.
Ryan argued that Obama and Biden are on the extreme end of the debate since their administration supported taxpayer-funded abortions. He said his pro-life position stems not just from his Christian beliefs, but “reason and science,” adding that a Romney administration would oppose all abortions with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
"We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision," Ryan said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortions in the U.S.
In their closing statements, Biden re-emphasized that he and Obama have made significant progress despite inheriting a “God-awful circumstance” when sworn into office, while Ryan told those tuning in that they deserve better from their leaders and promised to “re-apply our founding principles” if elected.
