Lakhota
Diamond Member
By Zack Beauchamp
Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan has gotten in hot water before for criticizing President Obama for the very same defense cuts that he voted for in 2011. When confronted with this incongruity today on Face The Nation, Ryan simply denied that he ever voted for the cuts, telling an incredulous Norah ODonnell that he didnt actually vote for the cuts hes on record as voting for:
ODONNELL: Now youre criticizing the President for those same defense cuts youre voting for and called a victory.
RYAN: No, no I have to correct on you this, Norah. I voted for a mechanism that says the sequester will occur if we dont cut $1.2 trillion in government. We can get into this nomenclature; I voted for the Budget Control Act. But the Obama Administration proposed $478 billion in defense cuts. We dont agree with that, our budget rejected that, and then on top of that is another $500 billion in defense cuts in the sequester.
ODONNELL: Right. A trillion dollars in defense spending, and you voted for it!
RYAN: No, Norah. I voted for the Budget Control Act.
ODONNELL: That included defense spending!
RYAN: Norah, youre mistaken.
ODonnell is, in fact, not mistaken. The Budget Control Act, as passed, included both the roughly $600 billion in sequestration cuts that will happen if theres no compromise on the budget by December as well as the $487 billion of military-supported cuts that will take place regardless. The fact that Ryan may have wished that the bill didnt contain said defense cuts does not absolve him of the fact that he and 201 other Republicans voted for the bill as-passed.
More: Ryan: I Didn't Vote For The Defense Cuts I Voted For | ThinkProgress
Video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua3-wqNICdM&feature=player_embedded]Ryan: I Didn't Vote For Defense Cuts I Voted For - YouTube[/ame]