generation. while paul ryan hammered president obama in ohio. >> he probably did not mention yesterday is that when he passed his signature health care achievement, obama care, he raided $716 billion from medicare to pay for obama care. this will lead to fewer services for seniors. president obama's campaign calls this an achievement. you think raiding medicare to pay for obama care is an achievement? >> will all of these attacks mean no fixes to the program are going to be possible? we'll talk to former comptroller, david walker. plus, let joe be joe. president obama defends his man. >> what joe biden was talking about, again, is an example of a substantive argue, a substantive issue the american people should be concerned about and his phrasing is a distraction from

what is at stake. meanwhile, don't forget we are at war. seven american troops killed when their black hawk helicopter crashed in southern afghanistan. we don't know if it was hostile fire. and still no word if enemy fire was to blame or the taliban as they claim. and it could happen to you. one ticket, one big jackpot. someone in michigan bought the winning single ticket for the third largest powerball jackpot ever. and good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington today. in our "daily fix" mitt romney is playing professor romney on medicare, while his running mate, paul ryryan, attacks president obama's policies on the same subject. is medicare what the ticket wants to be talking about? chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. we will fact check all of this in a bit, but is medicare now the central theme of the campaign instead of jobs? >> well, it is, it has beenandr.

i think the romney campaign, frankly, had to anticipate this in some way that the litigating of paul ryan being put on the ticket would involve what his budget proposal would do to medicare. i think what they would say is, look, it's been five days. it's critically important we at least fight the medicare attack to a draw. it's why paul ryan is going to florida this weekend to make his own case, that's why you saw mitt romney with the whiteboard. saw paul ryan talking about obama care and what that did regarding medicare. they're trying to fight this to a draw so they can move on. i think it's a recognition that if they lose on defining paul ryan and defining what the republican ticket now wants to do with medicare, they lose the election. probably regardless of how much they talk about the economy. that they have to make this case and at least fight it to a draw so they can make that broader, i would argue much better political case for them about why barack obama has failed on the economy. >> now, another case they are

trying to make is that president obama has not had a press conference, not since march 6th has he been in the east room for a formal press conference. yes, in june he was in mexico at the g-20. there were six questions asked then. most of them foreign. but chris, the point is the president has not been accessible except he went on "entertainment tonight," talked to "people" magazine, not to the white house reporters or even the campaign reporters. and mitt romney did stop and had a press conference, a brief one, but this is the risk of talking to reporters. they asked him about his taxes. and he responded with, of course, this is not their theme of the day, but this was his answer. >> given the challenges that america faces, 23 million people out of work, iran about to become nuclear, one out of six americans in poverty, the fascination with taxes i paid i find to be very small minded compared to the broad issues that we -- but i did go back and

look at my tax es and over the last ten years i never paid less than 13%. paid taxes every single year. harry reid's charge is totally false. i'm still waiting for harry to put up who it was that told him what he says they told them. i don't believe it for a minute, by the way. >> so the tax issue put it rest? >> here's what's interesting, andr andrea. they had to know when he did this press availability that someone would ask him about tax returns. his wife, ann, going to air tonight, but we've already seen the quote from "rock center" her interview with natalie morales, saying we're not going to release more tax returns, we're doing everything legally we're going to do. that is the context, he's going to get a question about it, and we now know he went through those years or had someone two through the years of tax returns because he knew he was going to get asked about it. they believe this now takes the burden of proof away from mitt romney and puts it back into

harry reid, president obama and everyone else asking about how much or whether he paid any taxes at all. i would say this. if you still believe that mitt romney did not pay taxes in some years in the past decade, you have to assume he just lied in that clip you played. that is a very tough assumption to make, particularly when on the other side harry reid is saying he has a source saying that mitt romney did not pay taxes. >> exactly. there's no way that that would happen. people can spin, but they can't absolutely flat-out say that something is not true on the campaign trail at this level of politics. >> it would be a -- it would be an unimaginably big risk for mitt romney to say what he just said if he had any thought that it wasn't true. and this answer is not going to satisfy lots of people including many democrats who will push for more tax returns, andrea. i think it will effectively say this idea that he didn't pay any taxes at all, it will certainly quiet that drum beat, because, again, if you want to believe

that, you have to believe what you just played, that minute-long clip of mitt romney, that he, a presidential candidate is not telling the truth. and i just don't see that happening. >> chris cillizza, thank you so much. >> thank you. nbc's peter alexander has been on the trail, of course, with the romney campaign, taking a quick break through the home base. peter, you asked mitt romney that question in new hampshire. and then the harry reid debate erupted, but it's very clear that he has gone back, at least 13%. a lot of people would argue 13% is not a great argument, you know, for the candidate. >> you make a good point. >> but the bottom line is he paid at least 13%. >> and already, though, let's note the obama campaign has ads that one in this market in northern virginia and other places that say he pays 13% while he wants to help others, you know, pay a whole lot more than he's paying. so i think despite the fact that he sort of puts this to rest at some point, this is a conversation we're going to continue to talk about, this tax issue. they're going to say, all right, it's just 13%, so how did you get away with doing that?

one thing to note i thought was interesting, as we heard the availability today, and when i heard that he would be speaking today, i thought to myself, he's probably going to address what happened in afghanistan today with the death of seven americans there. the last time he held an available when we were on the campaign trail with him, he brought up the fact there had been three people killed including the shooter in an attack near the campus of texas a&m. he didn't do that. the romney campaign recognizes talking about afghanistan is not a point of strength for them. nonetheless, i thought we would hear about that from him today. >> the other point about the taxes, i'm wondering when are they going to finally put out this second year? they only outlined what his current year's tax returns are going it be. how late in the game? the earlier the better, one would think, especially because there will be people picking over it and will be controversial. >> they recognize it will be used against them. we thought it would happen in the dead months of summer. it's likely to happen after the

convention, could easily happen in october, when extension tax returns are due. if it happens then, we'll be talking it in the days leading up to the election. >> then it will become a big topic of the debates as well in october. now, ann romney said they're not going to release any more than these two years. we should point out, again, they haven't released the second year yet, in her interview with natalie morales. this is more about her trip back to her roots in wales with natalie morales for tonight's "rock center." >> reporter: as the voices of a welsh choir echoed from a church where her ancestors are buried, we visited the hard scrabble coal country of southern wales. >> it's emotional to come back and know what kind of life my grandfather lived, my father, and how tough their living really was. >> reporter: her grandfather was just 6 when he began working at a mine similar to this one. her father, edward davies, grew

up here, too, before emigrating as a teenager to america where he made a fortune as an engineer and businessman. those family traits, both toughness and ambition, were very evident when i sat down with ann romney and we talked about her role in the campaign. sounds like you counsel mitt a lot in many ways. >> i feel like we are parter ne true partners in every sense of the way. i don't think he could do it without me. i don't believe he could. i couldn't obviously be here without him either. >> reporter: for her, that partnership is about more than just politics. >> we have a reason why we're running and it's because i believe in my heart that mitt is going to save america. that economically we are in such difficult times and that he is the person that's going to pull us through this. and it's propelled me through the negative criticism, and i am steadfast and positive and confident that still to this day

mitt is the person that's going to safe america and he's going to get us back on track. >> we saw yesterday michelle obama in iowa with the president and how effective a campaigner, she's a popular member of the team. ann romney is a very big factor, is she not? >> absolutely true. when we travel with the campaign, you can tell when ann is with the governor and can tell when she's not there. when she's there, he feels more confident, more loose, i think he feels more comfortable. one thing to keep watching, watch the way ann reacts when they share a stage with paul ryan. the two of them, mitt romney and paul ryan will be together in new hampshire on monday hosting a town hall. there will be more questions asked there. when she's there and paul ryan's on the stage, she lights up. she loves the young paul ryan next to her husband as well. >> interesting. safe travels to you as well back on the trail. don't miss, of course, natalie moral morales' interview on "rock center cwith brian williams" at

130k 10:00. we want to show that we don't always go at each other's throats around here. we can actually agree on some things. this is one of those things we agree on. >> that was paul ryan on our show last november, with his democratic counterpart, ranking member of the budget committee, chris van hollen. things have changed a little bit since then. one is running for vice president. the other, congressman chris van hollen, ranking democrat on the budget committee. you're on the attack mode against your partner. >> well, i'm not on attack mode against paul ryan. i like paul ryan, personally. i'm glad we were able to work on that piece of legislation together. it was something we both agreed on. but the reality is anyone who watches the budget committee debates know that we have incredibly deep differences on the fundamental choices that are a play in this election. and i've always told paul ryan, the more people look at his budget document, the less they

will like it. it's an uncompromising, tea party manifesto that says we're going to provide more tax breaks to people like mitt romney at the expense of everybody else. at the expense of seniors, at the expense of investing in our kids' education, and as just indicated at the expense of middle income taxpayers who are going to have to pay more taxes so people like mitt romney pay less. so that's the debate we should be having and i'm confident when the american people learn more about where mitt romney and paul ryan want to take the country, the more they're going to reject that alternative. >> let's take another look at mitt romney krcriticizing president obama's medicare plans. >> the president's plan cuts medicare -- excuse me. well, let's see. there we go. by $716 billion. cut. in addition, the trustees of

medicare estimate that approximately 4 million people will lose their coverage under medicare advantage. >> i know you want to rebut that. >> yes, andrea. this really requires a good conversation for the country. mitt romney is simply being dishonest and hypocritical with ameri american people. i have in my hand the trustee statement, says the financial outlook for the medicare program is substantially improved as a result of the changes in the affordable care act, as a result of obama care. what romney and ryan would do is immediately increase costs to seniors with higher prescription drug costs, because they would re-open the doughnut hole. they would immediately require seniors to pay more for preventative health services then they would phase in a plan that gives seniors on medicare a much worse deal than members of

congress have for themselves. because under the ryan/romney plan, the way it works is that people are given this voucher and the value of the voucher declines in value relative to the rising higher costs in health care. and it's seniors who have to eat the difference, whereas in the congressional plan, the support from the plan rises proportionately with rising health care costs. so romney and ryan are asking seniors on medicare to take a much worse deal than members of congress, themselves, have. >> and one other point in terms of the comparison, there's $716 billion in slower medicare growth in both plans. i mean, where it comes from is different, but both sides would cut the same amount. >> well, that's right. look, the ryan plan takes all the savings that we achieved through affordable care act in medicare. the difference is, we plowed, we reinvested some of those savings in strengthening benefits like the prescription drug benefit,

like preventative health care services. they took the money and just ran. now, the romney proposal would actually accelerate the insolvency of medicare by eight years because unlike the ryan plan, which took those savings, what romney is saying is, let's actually have the medicare plan go insolvent earlier because he would get rid of some of the changes we made. for example, and this is a very important point, we made some of those savings by eliminating overpayments to the medicare advantage plans. these are the private insurance companies. what romney is saying is he would reinstate those overpayments. you know who ends up paying for that? medicare beneficiaries. so if you to what mitt romney wants to do, we will be taking more money from seniors in the form of premiums and co-pays and giving that money, once again, to overpay the private insurance companies in medicare. and on average over the next ten years, that's going to cost

seniors $300 more per year. right now, in terms of that beginning to kick in, not ten years from now. so what romney has done, in terms of the position he's taken, in forcing paul ryan to flip-flop on this issue, is he's actually accelerating the insolvency of the medicare trust fund by eight years and asking seniors to foot the bill to reinstate these big subsidies to private insurance companies. nobody's really talked about this aspect of it, andrea. i think it's going to get flushed out in a big way because the savings achieved in the president's plans for achieved by -- so they would focus on the quality of health care, not the quality of health care. it didn't touch any of the benefits for seniors, whereas the romney/ryan plan will do two things. it will eliminate some of those benefits we provided, prescription drug coverage, closing the doughnut hole, and

no co-pays for preventative health care. bullet th but then expose seniors to higher cost exposure than members of congress and to add insult to injury, the romney/ryan plan, especially what romney's saying, is that we're now going to ask seniors to pay more in order to reinstate the overpayments to the private insurance companies in medicare advantage. they were being subsidized at an average of 114% of the overall medicare system. >> we're going to have to leave it there, but i'm looking forward to the next debate on our show, between you and your republican counterpart, paul ryan. >> i would welcome that opportunity. >> bring a whiteboard. >> we should do that, because this is a really fundamental choice. we need to get it right. >> thanks so much. >> thank you. >> thanks for joining us today. and up next, romney campaign senior adviser barbara joins us. still ahead, more on medicare with david walker.

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with the choice of paul ryan as the running mate this week it's all been about medicare for the romney campaign. not jobs. in this the high risk strategy that could backfire? barbara comstock is top romney campaign adviser and joins me now. let's talk about medicare, but, again, isn't medicare a tough and potentially very controversial subject for republicans to talk about? >> sure, but this is all tied together. i mean, good policy is good politics. obviously we're all focused on jobs, as jobs number one, that is what mitt romney has been focused on from day one. the reason paul ryan has been such a -- focused on the budget is because the budget impacts jobs and how we spend the money and whether we spend it wisely or carelessly like the $1

trillion stimulus. you see people every day when we go out and door knock and make phone calls, people are saying, where did that $1 trillion go? we don't have jobs. we have $4,000 less in income. we have higher unemployment. our gas prices are higher. our grocery prices are higher. where the jobs? what did they do with the money? but that's why when you have good policy like what paul ryan has done, it's very much like what mitt romney did as a governor. i know when i ran in virginia, we focused on what good governors did. people like governor romney, mitch daniels, now bob mcdonnell that i've worked with. paul ryan's policies are very geared toward that, so this medicare discussion is going to be a good discussion for everyone to have because, as you saw with the whiteboard, governor romney is a policy wonk. he ran a state in massachusetts where you had to balance the budget and he did it by getting into the details. >> he doesn't talk about massachusetts. everybody who talks about his record -- >> he's explaining here how what we have to do now, because medicare is a national issue,

but it impacts all of us in the states because, you know, it impacts the money being taken out and how it's being spent. so you have this situation now where governor romney e's explaining very well today how the $716 billion cuts from medicare and it is for current seniors that get those cuts by doing things like lowering doctors payments. you already have doctors who are bailing out of medicare. they put this 15-person board in place that's going to decide every proceed wrdure that senio get. >> barbara, wouldn't the paul ryan of two weeks ago and other republicans be embarrassing of accusing the president of cutting medicare when republicans have argued for years that democrats have been unwilling to cut medicare? >> no. see, the white house is bragging about those cuts but what we have said is we are not going to touch anyone 55 or older. the way we make the savings is by the 55 and under. by us, by our children, by younger workers. by saying, let's give you the kind of plan that congress has. let's give you choice.

now, you're still going to have the standard medicare plan you can get. so if you want to stay the way it is, you can do it, but if you want to have other options and choices, just the way we did when i was a federal employee, when all these members of congress, they got to choose among plans. that's what we're going to be able to do for future generations. but for current seniors and those nearing retirement, 55 and above, we're happy to have this discussion because we're not touching it and we didn't rob medicare to fund obama care. and there's a new poll out today in florida, of all places, that is showing obama care is still very unpopular. people are more frightened of that because they know that's coming at them right now. that 15-person board is going to impact what your husband, what my parents, are going to be able to get in procedures. if you're in medicare, you don't -- you can't really go any other place except maybe a doctor who's not taking medicare and will just take cash from you. so we want to say to seniors who've already retired, you paid into this system, you deserve to

have protected what we promised you, and we can do that if we make choices and changes for the younger workers. and that's a good policy -- >> except the ryan budget, with vouchers, will profoundly change -- >> no, it's not. that's incorrect. it's not vouchers. >> it is vouchers. >> no. please read the piece by ron wyden back in march with he explains the misrepresentations about that. it is not because -- if you don't -- >> read samuelson. we're going to have david walker coming on. >> you're talking about the previous plan. the plan they worked with, wyden calls it the wyden/ryan plan. he talked about the misrepresentations because you still can do regular medicare or have a choice. >> exactly. >> you only have that other choice if you decide to go to that other type and it's not a voucher. what it is, it's -- they can have that debate, but that's for the younger workers and it's saying, you can have choice the way the federal employees do. if you don't want choice, you don't have to have choice. >> won't it be the case that it will be cherry picked, that the

younger healthier people will go for the other options and the old fashioned medicare program will dissipate? >> look at the federal employees health care plan. withdr you have people, janitors, up to the agency heads that choose a plan and choose a plan and have good health care. it's something that's worked for federal employees for years and something federal employees like so much. everybody in the private sector and the public sector have agreed it's a success. we're just saying, let's use that for younger workers and ron wyden and paul ryan worked together to try and come up with that solution. i would encourage you to google, read an original source from ron wyden back when he was defending his plan. he's been cory bookered a little and stayed quiet about it. he talked about how people were beating him up for doing this and it was a sensible plan just like bowles said paul ryan is a smart -- >> we played that just the other day. we found that old tape. >> thank you. >> we're the first to play it. >> those are the kinds of things

if we hear about good policy discussions, if we hear people like erskine bowles, ron wyden talking about these issues, the american people are going it be happy about this discussion. it's one we need to have. >> we have to go. we have to ask paul ryan why he voted against simpson/bowles as a member of the commission. to be continued. glad to have you here. >> good to be with you. up next, our politico briefing. managing joe biden. time for the "your business" sbrup ne entrepreneurs of the week, the driving force behind streits known for its matzos. they say the key to their success is not changing how their product is made. they bake and pack them the same way it's been done for nearly a century. for more, watch "your business" sunday morning at 7:30 on msnbc. managing my diabetes is part of my life,

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joe biden from the ticket. advice and not really serious, but republicans are having a lot of fun with joe biden's latest comments on the trail. and joining me now is politico's maggie haberman. hi, maggie. >> how are you? >> i'm fine. joe biden is right now having lunch with the president. we're told that's their weekly every thursday lunch, that presidents and vice presidents have had, i think it was really started by clinton and gore. but the point is that there's no problem with joe biden except that at times he goes off message. >> that is certainly the message they're trying to convey. i think as my colleague jonathan martin wrote today, the staff goes a bit nuts and understandably so when he goes off message in dramatic fashion. what he said, you know, the campaign is arguing that's not what he meant. the president says that's not what he meant. republicans have ten huge defense. it's dominated headlines for two days. whether it's sinking in with voters is unclear, but certainly on this week where the democrats were hoping to have a parallel between vice president joe biden and the matchup with paul ryan, this isn't quite what they

wanted to see. >> and this was the president and mrs. obama were on "entertainment tonight." he hasn't answered questions but he did go on "entertainment tonight." >> what joe biden was talking about, again, is an example of a substantive argument, a substantive issue that the american people should be concerned about and his phrasing is a distraction from what is at stake. >> that's a little bit revealing there. his phrasing is a distraction. acknowledging that they are a little off message. i mean, he's a valuable campaigner, and we know how important he is to the team in pennsylvania and ohio, in michigan, with working class voters. at the same time, once he gets fired up, you never know what's going to happen. >> that's exactly right. i mean, he's very good at working the crowd. he is very good at giving speeches. he's very good off the cuff which a lot of politicians are not. all of the pluses about joe biden are also the minuses. jonathan martin pointed out

today, you know, we want these candidates to be, you know, more off script and more alive and vibrant and not sort of programmed and they feel like we do a got-you when revealed. that being said, there has to be a middle ground here and that's what these folks are striving for. >> maggie haberman from politico. thank you. coming up next here, obama campaign press secretary ben labolt. plus can medicare be saved? this is the plan for back to school. introducing share everything, only from verizon. a shareable pool of data to power up to 10 different devices. add multiple smartphones to your plan, so everyone in your family can enjoy unlimited talk and text. the first plan of its kind. share everything. get your student a samsung galaxy nexus for $99.99.

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president obama is denying he's running a negative campaign. despite widespread criticism of an obama superpac ad that critics say tries to link mitt romney to a woman's loss of her health insurance and subsequently her death from cancer. joining me now, ben labolt, national press secretary for the obama campaign. ben, great to see you. let's talk about -- >> thanks for having me. >> -- the charges and the

countercharges. any regrets about the superpac ad? i know you technically had nothing to do with it. it came from bill burton, superpac. >> certainly, that's not an ad that we ran. i think if you spend a day out on the campaign trail with the president, andrea, you'll see that the narrative that's been on cable for the past week isn't reflected in what he's focused on on the trail. the president, this week, went to iowa. he spent three days talking to voters about the issues mattered there. he called for the passage of the farm bill to deal with the worst drought in 50 years to get water to the livestock and crops in the state of iowa. he talked about extending the production tax credit, which is supporting 7,000 wind energy jobs across the state of iowa in contrast with the romney campaign on that. >> this is a superpac, this is the chief superpac which he urged people to contribute to which is run by somebody we both know very well.

he can't completely divorce himself from that. in response to some of the countercriticism, you had put out a statement, a campaign statement accusing the romney campaign, governor romney in particular, of being unhinged. you said, "governor romney's comments tonight seemed unhinged and particularly strange coming at a time when he's pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false." you mean the welfare ad, which critics, politifact, others, we have questioned as well. what did you mean by unhinged? >> well, i think it was important to point out the hypocrisy there. over the course of the past year, governor romney has run almost an entirely negative campaign, tearing down his opponents and after tearing them down, telling them to stop whining. over the past weekend, when he announced his vice presidential selection, he said that he wanted to focus on the economic choice in this election, which the president has been focused on all along. but the other night, he abandoned that pledge and strangely accused the president of running a hateful campaign.

at the same time as he's got these ads on the air that are demonst demonstratebly false that president clinton said are false, that architect of welfare reform have are false and independent fact checkers say are false. we welcome a debate. who's going to build themy from the middle class out, who's going to build it from the top down? that's what we're focused on every day of this campaign. >> and why hasn't the president had a news conference for either the traveling press corps on the campaign or the white house press corps? he's not met the white house press corps since march 6th, officially. his only press conference in mexico in june at the g-20, six questions mostly on forbe foreign policy. when is he going to be accessible for questions? >> as you know, the president has been available for dozens of questions each week on the campaign trail. there's no doubt that the number of outlets there, and that americans get their news from, is more diverse than it was even

from four years ago. whether it's digital platforms, local platforms, entertainment platforms, television platforms, radio platforms. he's given interviews to reach americans where they are. the white house press corps is a part of that. he's certainly given press conferences and he'll do them again. but that's not to say that an interview in cleveland, ohio, with the television station there isn't just as important. >> and a national news conference where he could be asked questions on all subjects by those who cover it full time? >> well, he had a national interview on cbs just a couple weeks ago where he could be asked any question. when he travels to iowa, he can get a question about the drought, or wind energy, which is a critical issue there. so i don't think that -- i wouldn't assume that if he's in a local market that the reporters' questions will be any less serious than a member of the white house press corps. >> i'll take that as a no. ben labolt. thank you very much.

>> thanks for having me, andrea. >> you bet. up next, the medicare fact check with david walker. rogaine? well, i'll admit it. i was skeptical at first. but after awhile even my girlfriend noticed a difference. [ male announcer ] rogaine is proven to help stop hair loss. and for 85% of guys, it regrew hair. save up to 42% now at rogaine.com. the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. so what i'm saying is, people like options. when you take geico, you can call them anytime you feel like saving money. it don't matter, day or night. use your computer, your smartphone, your tablet, whatever. the point is, you have options. oh, how convenient. hey. crab cakes, what are you looking at?

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cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. hi, everyone, i'm tamron hall. coming up in just 15 minutes on "news nation," armed with a whiteboard and marker, mitt romney has an impromptu q&a with reporters to draw a literal line between his plan and the president's regarding medicare. romney is now saying his plan and paul ryan's are near identical. we'll dig into what that means. plus another battle brewing in arizona. governor jan brewer's latest stand against the obama administration. president obama and mitt romney both claiming that they can save medcare and accusing each of thor of destroying medicare, but is this politically charged debate so full of hype and half truths that it makes it impossible to ever solve the real problems? david walker is former u.s. controller general, now ceo of the comeback america initiative

focusing on fiscal responsibility and entitlement reform. david, welcome. thanks so much. well, you've heard a lot of the debate. you saw the whiteboard today with mitt romney accusing the president of medicare cuts. barbara comstock was here from the campaign saying that president obama would cut current recipients with the $716 billion in cuts, while wyden/ryan, she says, would preserve what is available for current recipients. what say you? >> well, as a former trustee of medicare and social security, quite frankly, i've been embarrassed by both of the campaigns so far. there's a lot of disinformation. there's a lot of hypocrisy. look, both candidates agree that health care could bankrupt this country. both candidates agree that we need to significantly reduce medicare spending and other federal health care spending over time. there's a difference of opinion

about how to accomplish those reductions, but the idea that the republicans want to end medicare as we know it, or that president obama is trying to slash and burn medicare, they're both ridiculous. i think what we have to do is recognize that medicare is underfunded based upon reasonable assumptions, $37 trillion and growing. and that we're ultimately going to have to rationalize our promises and focus on how best to control costs and how to balance compassion and cost. so let's deal with the substance and solutions rather than the spend and the mud slinging. >> one of the columns today by robert samuelson called the hole in ryaryan's medicare plan, say one of the big problems in the cuts in ryan budget are very severe on the domestic side but he won't deal with taxes. is that a fundamental flaw in the ryan approach? >> well, there are two aspects of congressman ryaryan's plan t

i think really have to be looked at hard other than the health care issue. one, he is talking about comprehensive tax reform, and in fairness, he's talking about raising more revenues than the historical average. 19% of the economy, 18.3%. he's getting that through pro growth or additional growth rather than a conscious effort to try to raise more revenue. >> dynamic scoring. >> correct. and he's taken defense off the table. look, we need comprehensive tax reform that will make the system simpler, fairer, more competitive, more equitable and generate more revenues and we need to reduce defense spending and other spending without compromising national security and homeland security and that can be done. i was on the defense business board as a member for eight years. there's plenty of opportunity to reduce those without compromising national security. >> david, finally, what about the romney attack against the president? that the president's cutting

current beneficiaries and that the romney/ryan approach would preserve all of these options for current ben fir wra beneficiaries? >> the truth is congress and recent presidents don't have much credibility, in delivering on their promises when it comes to reducing medicare spending and constraining medicare and other premium subsidies. you know, we're supposed -- the plan in the affordable care act says there's going to be several hundred billion dollars worth of medicare reductions, but history shows that congress and the president don't follow through with that and, in fact, the medicare chief actuary in coming up with his own set of assumptions assumes that most of those won't happen. look, let's get read. we've overpromised in health care. we need to rationalize our promises. we need to balance costs and compassion. we need to reduce medicare and oth other health care costs over time. let's focus on how best to do it and quit debating, you know, these, frankly, meaningless things in the short term. >> david walker, thank you very

much. and coming next, rick stengel, "time" magazine. how cell phones are changing the game in 2012. the new cover. eless... only one man can save the day... ♪ with his sweet and nutty, sweet and nutty crunchy nut ♪ delicious! [ male announcer ] kellogg's crunchy nut. it's super delicious. what's today's dare? erase the damage of 100 blow-drys [ female announcer ] with daily moisture renewal from pantene. the pro-v system nourishes to lock in moisture erasing the damage of 100 blow drys for a silky, soft touch. think only salon brands can do that? i took the dare...will you? [ female announcer ] daily moisture renewal from pantene. hair so healthy it shines.

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joining me now, rick stengel, managing editor of "time" magazine. great to see you. >> great to see you. >> it's fascinating to see how this is working. one of the things in michael scherer's article in "time" at a lollapalooza concert in chicago recently, when people at the concert checked their phones to get a weather report, what they got instead was something from karl rove's group which was an ad attacking barack obama. so this is how targeted, the cell phone usage can be for these campaigns. >> right. of course, andrea, you remember tip o'neill said all politics is local, but social media and mobile technology is making it

hyperlocal, that you can target people at events like this, you can target people on the street where you live. in fact, the -- michael also writes about the obama campaign app which you can download, and if you want to become -- if you want to knock door to door, you know, part of the app tells you who's a democrat on your street, who's a republican, where they live. i mean, it really is taking local politics to a new microlevel that was hard to imagine even just a couple of years ago. >> now, the obama campaign was way out ahead of the republicans four years ago in their use of social media and of the technology. have the republicans caught up? >> you know, i don't know. you gave the example, the cross roads example which is kind of an amazing example in the story. so i'm guessing that parts of the republican campaign, either the romney campaign, itself, or the folks that are supporting him, have kind of technology that the obama people have. what the obama people have done is that they've concentrated, that they've centralized.

they've refined what they were doing four years ago and made it even more sophisticated and even more all encompassing. so that's the standard, and that's hard to compete with. >> and so the subhead on the "time" magazine cover is "ten ways that your phone is changing the world." outside of the campaign, the cell phone has revolutionized everything about the way we live. >> it has. i mean, and particularly outside of america, in places like africa, in terms of how it's handling agriculture. people are using their phones for payment. they're not even opening bank accounts. it's a liberating thing for people who don't have the vested interest in old technology that we do. so, and we did this great worldwide poll with qualcomm and found out that, in fact, americans much more than a lot of people around the world have ambiguous feelings and ambivalent feelings about their cell phones in a way that people around the world are kind of unconditionally happy about having mobile technology. >> in fact, it's revolutionizing

health care delivery in africa, with the retroviral drugs in explaining all kinds of things to people who are outside the reach of clinical health care workers. so the cell phone has revolutionized the world. we're just catching up with it here at home. rick stengel, great to see you. thanks so much. >> great to be with you. >> great cover. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." my colleague, tamron hall, back from london has a look at what's next. have to find out about it. >> it's great too be back. i'll call you with the updates behind the scenes. mitt romney on the campaign trail giving an impromptu q&a with reporters. romney drew a line between his plan and the president's plan on medicare. now governor romney is saying paul ryan's plan and his plan are near identical. so what does that mean? plus, another battle brewing in arizona. governor jan brewer's latest stand against the obama

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hi there, everyone, i'm tamron hall. the news nation is following mitt romney's last minute media availability a couple hours ago at an airport in greenville, south carolina. it was meant to clearly explain the differences between his plan for medicare and president obama's. and romney wrote on a whiteboard to do so. >> so this is the president's plan. $716 billion cut. 4 million people losing medicare advantage. and 15% of hospitals and nursing homes not accepting medicare patients. the president's plan has a dramatic impact on today's seniors. >> romney said his plan makes no changes for people 55 and older. he also said his plan will keep medicare solvent and the president's won't. join