My Thoughts

So. Romney's pick for his Vice Presidential nominee is Paul Ryan and their first interview as a couple was with Bob Schieffer of CBS for a segment on 60 Minutes. If you'd like to watch it, you can do so HERE, but it pretty much lacks substance.

The Romney campaign wants to turn the page away from the unanswered questions concerning Romney's taxes, but after last night's little reveal I think the keyboard will be stuck on the t-word for a little while to come. Here's the part of the interview where Schieffer asks about Ryan's tax returns:

Bob Schieffer: How many years of tax returns did you turn over to the campaign?

Paul Ryan: Well, it was a very exhaustive vetting process. It's a confidential vetting process, so there were several years. But I'm going to release the same amount of years that Governor Romney has. But I got to tell you, Bob--

Bob Schieffer: And how many was that?

Paul Ryan: He's-- two. He's-- I'm going to be releasing two, which is what he's releasing.

So, in order to be considered for the vice-presidential nomination, Romney and his team required Paul Ryan to produce more years of tax returns than Romney, the presidential nominee, is willing to release to the American people? Justify that.

Paul Ryan is probably most well known for his budget proposal that would eliminate Medicare as we know it and turn it into a voucher system. His budget also provides for huge tax cuts for folks earning more than $200,000 and increasing taxes for low and middle income taxpayers to pay for those tax cuts for those folks in the upper income brackets. In addition, Ryan’s plan would eliminate capital gains taxes. And, coincidentally, almost all of Romney's income consists of - you guessed it! - capital gains. Instead of the exhorbitant 14% - already about 20% lower than the rest of us working stiffs pay - Romney's taxes would be reduced to nearly ZERO! Yay!! They love America, but they don't want to have to contribute to America. They'll let "you people" do it.

So, of course, back in March Romney said, "I think it'd be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan's budget and to adopt it and pass it along to the president."

But apparently, the Ryan budget isn't so great after all. Now Romney is trying to side-step around the Ryan plan pointing out that he has his own plan.

Bob Schieffer: There's no question your campaign has been trying to make this election a referendum on Barack Obama. Now, some people are saying you are making it a referendum on Paul Ryan's budget plan.

Mitt Romney: Well, I have my budget plan as you know that I've put out. And that's the budget plan that we're going to run on.

The selection has been made. Romney chose as his running mate the author of probably the most draconian budget plan ever presented, but now he doesn't want to talk about it? Good luck.

I think this is about all we're going to be talking about until November, after which Paul Ryan can go back to Wisconsin and Mitt Romney can go back to Massachusetts and President Obama can get on with guiding America through the toughest economic recovery since the Great Depression.