Ryan dismisses Trump’s criticism of entitlement plan
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is dismissing Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s accusation that Ryan cost the GOP the 2012 election.
Trump said Ryan, the running-mate of GOP nominee Mitt Romney, blew the race with his plan to reform entitlement spending.
{mosads}Ryan on Friday declined to rebut the claim, saying that if he responded to every minutia of criticism, “I’d lose my voice,” according to The Associated Press.
The Speaker also stuck to his welfare plan in an appearance at a Wisconsin plastics manufacturer, arguing that “if we don’t reform our programs, they’re gonna go bankrupt.”
Ryan said his proposed Social Security reform would not affect those who are at or near the retirement age, which was one of the attacks levied against him in the 2012 general election.
“All of our entitlement reforms make sure that no benefit cut occurs to anybody in or near retirement but that we reform them for those of us who are younger, so that these programs are there for us when we retire and so that we can guarantee that seniors actually have the benefits that are being promised to them,” he said.
Trump on Wednesday referenced an attack ad purporting to show Ryan pushing a grandmother off of a cliff.
“Remember the wheelchair being pushed over the cliff when you had Ryan chosen as your vice president?” he asked a crowd at a South Carolina rally. “That was the end of the campaign, by the way, when they chose Ryan.
“And I like him, he’s a nice person, but that was the end of the campaign,” he added.
“I said you’ve got to be kidding, because he represented cutting entitlements, etcetera, etcetera. The only one that’s not going to cut is me.”
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