mitchell reports" where's the beef? first it was entertainment tonight, now the president is doing new mexico pop radio. red chili peppers or green? >> last time i was in albuquerque i had pretty outstanding mole if i'm not mistaken. but i have not sampled all that's available so you guys are going to have to give me some tips next time i'm there. >> paul ryan flying solo in virginia. how is he doing one week in? >> this is our generation's defining moment. this is the most important election in your lifetime no matter what generation you come from. we can do this. we can turn this around. we can get this right. we can get our economy growing. we can get people back to work. we can look back at this moment as the moment we secured the future for our children and our grandchildren and together, virginia, we can get this done. >> he and mitt romney will be teaming up again in new hampshire monday night. but they won't be taking the

bait. thanks but no thanks to the obama campaign's offer to call it quits if romney were to release five years of taxes. >> he has a penchant for secrecy and thinks he can play by a different set of rules, and no, i don't accept his word on what his taxes say. let the public see it. >> and another deadly day for u.s. forces in afghanistan. two separate attacks today by afghan security men, turning their weapons on americans. two are killed, two others seriously injured. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix today, paul ryan will cap one week as mitt romney's running mate with a trip to florida tomorrow, his eighth battleground state in only seven days. while ryan is defending the ticket on medicare, can mitt romney finally put the tax return issue to rest? chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and our great stand-in on the daily fix. thanks for being with us. let's talk about the tax issue.

obviously, this is very much tongue in cheek, the offer from jim messina today to the romney campaign. give us five taxes and we'll call it quits. >> yeah, the first sign that you know it's not a terribly serious offer is jim messina sent it out to reporters and cc'ed mitt romney's campaign on it. these are not the negotiating tactics of someone who i think wants there to be a deal. but i do think what you're seeing here is that mitt romney made a little bit of a gambit yesterday. we talked about it on the show, which is he came out and said look, i paid 13%, no less than 13% for the last decade, trying to put down this he didn't pay any taxes accusation by harry reid, the senate majority leader, as well as to try to move people beyond the issue. i think what the letter from jim messina this morning, the clip you played from david axelrod, all goes to is the obama campaign's not going to let him off the hook that easily. they believe that this is an

issue they can win on, whether he paid 13% or, you know, 25%, that it's more important that we see the full tax returns. why? because, look, mitt romney is a very wealthy person who has almost certainly a tax return that looks exotic to your average american. the obama campaign thinks they can use that as a wedge to say he's just not that like you. >> why did mitt romney, with his white board and going into the medicare details, why did he take the bait from a reporter asking a question? he answers the question with yes, i did go back and looked at it and i paid no less than 13%. is 13% going to satisfy most americans? >> well, to your first question, i asked the romney folks that very same question, which is if he could have answered this question weeks ago, why didn't he so we wouldn't be litigating it out. they said look, he was asked this by that same reporter when they were in europe, he didn't have the exact answer then. the reporter asked him again

yesterday in south carolina and he wanted to answer it. you know, the thing that i do wonder about is, the 13%, look, most people, andrea, pay more than 13%. here's what we do know about mitt romney's taxes. in 2010, he made $21 million, drawing no salary. that is something that is not similar to the vast majority of the people he's going to need to win, he's going to have to have vote for him in the fall election. that is just, it is exotic, it is different and the obama campaign knows exotic and different in politics can be very politically dangerous for mitt romney. it's why they continue to focus on it and my guess is will continue to focus on it. on the sunday shows next week and as we go in the run-up to the convention. >> briefly, a couple other quick points. paul ryan acknowledging that he did ask for stimulus money in letters, you know, on behalf of his congressional district after having previously denied it and he's going to florida, which is the heart of the medicare

debate, but he's going to a particular republican part of florida. >> so on the first thing, you know, paul ryan's initial answer on the stimulus was well, i personally didn't ask for any stimulus money which of course it would be odd if i, chris cillizza, asked for stimulus money. of course you were asking on the part of your constituents. so he was in an untenable position. they realized it and corrected the record. to your second point, he's going to the villages in florida. his mother, who lives in florida and is on medicare, will be with him. this is a huge retirement community that is also heavily republican. so what i would say is my guess is paul ryan gets a hero's welcome in terms of applause and the optics of this address tomorrow but that audience in there is not the main audience. the audience is the swing state voters who remain questionable about what his plan or mitt romney will do for health care -- for medicare, excuse me, and that's who he's got to satisfy. >> speaking of florida, thanks to you, chris cillizza. see you later. speaking of florida, does

mitt romney's 13% solution settle the tax debate once and for all? joining me now, florida congresswoman and democratic chair, debbie wasserman-schultz from florida. thanks so much. is it over? the tax debate? we have explained it's 13% and we're going to release the second set of returns in october. >> no. of course it's not over, because mitt romney is asking the american people to just trust him on the tax rate that he's paid for the last ten years, trust him on that he's paid all the taxes that he's owed, trust him on why he has a swiss bank account with $3 million in it and multiple investments in the cayman islands and a shell corporation in bermuda. he is running for president of the united states, and he needs to hold to the precedent of recent presidential candidates in modern times who have released multiple years of tax returns, because -- >> what they say -- what they

say -- >> not when you're running for president. >> the most recent example is john mccain, with two sets of tax returns. yes, he did his congressional filings, his senate filings for 25 years, but those are very broad categories. those aren't specific tax returns. let me just share with you matt rhoades. if governor romney's tax returns are the core message of your campaign, there will be ample time for president obama to discuss them over the next 81 days. in the meantime, governor romney will continue to lay out his plans for a stronger middle class, to save medicare, work back in welfare and help put 23 million americans struggling to find work in the obama economy. so there point is jobs a the economy should be the central message. >> mitt romney could settle this question mark over his tax returns and whether he's paid his fair share and make sure that we have a chance to take a close look at that, because he's running for president of the united states and when you're running for president of the united states, the precedent in modern times is that multiple

years of tax returns are released by a candidate for president. now, they have made it clear that the reason they're not releasing them is that they don't want us to get a close look at it because they don't want to potentially be subject to criticism. i mean, that's something that the campaign said over the last few days. well, you know what, you don't get to make -- i guess you get to make that decision, but if you're making it, then you are opening yourself up to legitimate criticism about what are you trying to hide. that's the bottom line. the romney campaign hasn't had such a good week if they want to focus on jobs and the economy. the rollout of paul ryan as his vice presidential pick has forced them to first defend their extreme medicare plan that would end medicare as we know it, and now caught paul ryan lying about whether or not he actually asked for stimulus funds for his district from the stimulus plan. so it's not been a very good week for the romney campaign, particularly with their rollout of paul ryan. >> well, they of course would

clearly dispute that characterization. we'll have more on that in a moment with kevin madden. but let me ask you about the president of the united states. he's running for re-election, he has not had a formal news conference since march 6th. he did talk to the media, six questions asked and answered, in mexico in june at the g-20 on foreign soil. but his accessibility, let me play a little bit from his latest interview. this was with pop radio, station kob in auquerque, new mexico. >> our big question is red or green? >> i think you've got to go with the classic red. although every once in awhile, green is solid. take care, guys. >> take care. >> all right. bye-bye. >> i just flirted with the president of the united states of america. >> this is right after doing "entertainment tonight."

i know what the white house is saying. they're saying well, he does interviews all the time with local, i mean, this is what ben lebolt tells us yesterday. doing this kind of radio interview occasionally is fine, i'm sure, but what about answering the really tough questions that experienced political journalists who cover him all the time, who are members of the white house press corps, are going to ask him? >> andrea, casual chit-chat aside, the president does do local interviews across the country, as he is traveling around the nation, and it's important for local reporters to be able to get a chance to ask him questions. >> sure, but it shouldn't be a replacement -- >> -- about how good the local food is. >> we could all put it on the air and share with all the viewers around the country. >> and we fully expect president obama will submit himself to questions from the d.c. press

corps but it is important that local press have a chance to ask the president of the united states questions, not just idle casual questions about local food preferences, but the questions that are important regionally and specifically locally, and so the d.c. press corps gets plenty of opportunities to grill president obama and also to grill jay carney, his spokesperson -- >> not lately. >> it's an important thing for local reporters, local press, and local folks to be able to get a closer look at president obama. not everyone is obsessing over d.c. press and d.c. news. we need to make sure the president is exposed to everyone and that everyone has a chance to see him up close. but he will be getting himself in front of the d.c. press corps again, i'm confident of that. >> i'm not talking about the d.c. press corps. i'm talking about campaign reporters who are traveling with him. >> i know. >> enough said. >> you will have an opportunity for sure.

>> thanks a lot. debbie wasserman-schultz. thanks for being with us. up next, the romney campaign's take on taxes. senior advisor kevin madden will be here. still ahead, secretary of state hillary clinton's globe-trotting record. it's pretty extraordinary. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest...

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the obama super pac is now jumping on the tax issue, the issue of mitt romney's taxes. a new ad, thinis this issue goio continue dog the campaign? kevin madden joins me now off the record. welcome back. you've lost a few pounds. what are they doing to you out

there? this is the campaign diet. >> a lot of coffee, lot of jet fumes. >> well, not sure how healthy a lifestyle it is. >> we're having fun out there, at least. >> i know you're having fun. not so much fun on the tax issue. how does he put this to rest? why did he open up on it yesterday after you stopped, did a press conference to talk about medicare, you had the white board, and then he answers 13%. do you think 13% is going to be the solution? >> look, i have been in about eight states and 21 cities over the last two weeks, and nobody out there is asking where are the tax returns. americans are asking where are the jobs. for those people that do care about the tax returns which seems to be mostly people that are working in the campaign headquarters of obama -- >> i think it's a legitimate question. >> -- in chicago. >> it's a character issue. >> they can go on the website, find the two years that have been disclosed, the same two years that were consistent with the precedent -- >> the second year is an outlyar, not fully disclosed yet. >> that's right, they will be. set by john mccain. that was the precedent of two years.

remember, back in 2008 when john mccain put out two years, the obama campaign didn't have a problem with that. the reason they have a problem with it now is because they don't have a record to run on. they don't have an economy that they can talk about. so they're looking for distractions. so we are where the american people are on this. the american people care about jobs and what we're going to do to bring down the deficit, what we're going to do to put this country on the right track. that's the issue that governor romney -- those are the issues governor romney is focused on, the issues that congressman ryan are focused on. come election day in november, we are going to be in a better position with the american public because we're talking about the issues that matter, not talking about distractions. >> on the tax issue, the reason why many would argue and not just the obama campaign but many people, serious people who are journalists and analysts would say his tax returns are important because his background is different. his background in business. he wasn't getting a paycheck, he was getting investment income. it's important to know where it came from, and to disclose not

only the sources of his income over a couple of years, let's go to the george romney standard which was that anything less than 12 years could be a fluke, that any one or two years is something that can be taken out of context. so why not just put it out there, disclose it, if you're confident that everything in there is transparent? >> romney has disclosed those two years. >> not fully the second year. >> that's consistent -- that's actually above and beyond the law. what the law requires, those financial disclosure forms -- >> no one is saying there is a legal requirement. this is a political imperative. >> right. again, i think i go back to my point which is that everywhere we go on the campaign trail, people aren't asking about the tax returns. people that do care about the tax returns, they can find out in those two years what governor romney paid and how he paid it and in addition to the financial disclosures, hundreds and hundreds of pages that are disclosed, that are required by law, disclosed about the governor's finances. then if they elect to look at those, they can make a decision.

the more important issue is about what we're doing with the american people's money. they look at president obama and his record over the last three and a half years and they're not happy with it and they do want more answers on the big issues. >> in terms of the big issues, instead of focusing on jobs and the obama record on jobs, people are all focused on medicare because of the choice of paul ryan. does that fit into the playbook? is that what you want? >> i believe so. here's why. medicare and health care in general is a cost of living issue for many americans, and the americans that saw many of these seniors that are on medicare right now who will see their care impacted by the $716 billion that obama cut from medicare in order to fund the obama care entitlement, they are very worried about that. not only that, it fits into a larger argument about how we're spending people's money, how we're adding to the deficit. this president has added $5 trillion to the federal deficit. that's all part of a larger economic argument because we are never going to be able to put the country on the right track

to creating jobs again and getting the economy kick-started if we're continuing to spend billions and trillions of dollars out of washington and creating more and more government, and then at the same time, taking away benefits promised to these seniors and obama didn't keep his promise to. >> we have to sort of break that down and fact check it. we will do that later with ezra klein, because both the ryan and the obama plan take $716 billion. the only question is where they take it from. the ryan plan arguably would take it from beneficiaries. the president's plan would take it from providers and it is true that past congresses have always reneged on promises to take money away from providers. there is a legitimate question about whether current seniors or future seniors are affected by either of the plans. i think that's a larger argument we will have to have. >> i think what you have to remember, too, is governor romney and congressman ryan are running on a shared vision, shared values, shared principles as it relates to reform in washington.

governor romney's plan on medicare and governor romney's plan for the economy have to do with putting that money back into it and helping strengthen medicare, and which is ultimately going to strengthen the overall economy. so i think this is a debate that i think congressman ryan put it best when he said we want this debate, we need this debate and i believe we will win this debate. >> kevin madden, pleasure to stsee you. >> always great to see you. i'll make sure to change my diet on the road. the latest on attacks on u.s. forces in afghanistan. the latest from kabul coming up. [ annie ] this is the story of annie

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after a helicopter crashed in southern afghanistan, that killed seven americans. likely from hostile fire. atia, it's just hard to even deal with what our troops are dealing with on the ground over there. tell me, is there a pattern here? are there thoughts among the commanders as to why this is happening and what is the long term ramification of it? >> reporter: andrea, it's a tragic situation and it's gotten worse honestly throughout the years. this has been the deadliest year for these insider attacks, also known as green on blue attacks. according to officials, they have done an investigation just to see why it's increasing and right now, they say that 90% of these attacks have nothing to do with the taliban although 10% could be because of taliban infiltration. the taliban last year sending out an edict to afghan security forces, either join them or they

will kill them. they have also called on afghans to infiltrate these afghan security forces to kill the coalition forces that they are working side by side with, living together in bases throughout the country. but the 90% that the u.s. says has nothing to do with taliban infiltration, they say it's because of individual motives including stress situations, battle fatigue and even personal grievances. i also interviewed a former afghan general here. he was pointing the finger at both the americans and international community as well as the afghans. he said one thing is that the americans and the international community doesn't respect the afghan culture or religion and that there are service members out there that personally insult the afghans and the afghans turn their weapon on them. he says there needs to be more of a cultural understanding. they are making their service members take more culture awareness courses on that but it's also got to do with the recruitment process. the afghans need to vet more and

more, according to this afghan general. >> the whole withdrawal strategy is based on helping the afghanistan army reach the point where they can defend themselves, and it seems to me that the whole process of withdrawal, the timetable, everything is thrown into jeopardy and is there consideration of actually pulling back from some front line positions and also pulling back from these shared responsibilities? >> well, you're absolutely right when you say the trust is going to be shattered by this event, at least very much so affected by it. in fact, the pentagon has just said, according to our colleagues there, that u.s. service members have to carry a gun fully loaded with their magazines, wherever they go on base, just for force protection measure. but when i spoke to officials here, including a general here at the headquarters in kabul, he says it's not going to affect anything. the transition will go on as it has been going on and in fact, he says that these are isolated

incidents and the fact that the afghan army has grown so drastically, 60,000 more afghans since last year, and again, that makes the vetting process even harder, that the afghans and the americans and the coalition forces are still fighting together and that the more they fight together, the more they trust each other but there will always be those bad seeds. >> atia, thanks for all that context. appreciate it. it's been nearly a week since mitt romney announced his choice. what have we learned about paul ryan? plus, behind the scenes on hillary's plane. the inside scoop on what it's like to travel with the secretary of state. my cut hurt! mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com.

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post" columnist ruth marcus, major garrett, capitol hill correspondent, kelly o'donnell. welcome all. first, major, okay, you thought it would be portman. some of us also thought portman was probably tops on the list. >> i wrote that it would be portman. i was wrong. i own that. >> how's he done the first week out? >> look, paul ryan has provided energy and dynamism and ideas and a new matrix for the romney campaign. that's been a plus and a negative. what mitt romney is now understanding, if he didn't last saturday, is that he owns ryan's profile on budget, taxes and entitlements. he better make it his own and be able to explain it persuasively and be if not as passionate, partially as passionate as paul ryan or it's going to become a problem going forward. >> we did go through a couple days where it was, well, i'm the person at the top of the ticket, it's my budget, not his. then i believe in everything in his budget. which is it? >> i don't know is the answer. has it only been a week?

i am befuddled by two things, by this pick which allowed major garrett to predict incorrectly rob portman. some of us didn't have the guts to write it. and also, having made this pick which is clearly bold, also risky, that they didn't seem to have a game plan for how to address it. they've either -- if you pick paul ryan, you might as well just embrace paul ryan because otherwise, you're going to face the well, where exactly are you different questions. if you don't -- if you're going to take that second approach and you don't have an answer to the where are you different questions, then you're just going to be in muddled land until the rest of time, until you beg to talk about tax returns. >> kelly o'donnell, you're the first to report that chris van hollen is going to be the stand-in to play ryan in debate

practice. let me play a clip. i'm looking forward to the next debate between you and your republican counterpart, paul ryan. >> i would welcome that opportunity. >> he seemed to have all the medicare facts yesterday but paul ryan, you cover him, because you have been on the hill obviously with him as the budget chair, you have been tracking the budget. he is ready to go, primed to go. we watched him in virginia this morning. do you think they now embrace ryanism and make a virtue of it, that's why they chose him? >> it's interesting, usually we are asking the second person on the ticket where they differ from the nominee and somehow that's been flipped around this time. maybe in part because there was a degree of surprise even though there had been a lot of discussion that paul ryan is a bright face in the party would be considered, but there had been a sense this a safer choice was going to be the more likely path for romney. well, that didn't happen. so now it really is a case of trying to find out how can mitt romney try to own some of the

things that conservatives like about paul ryan, a willingness to sort of lead with your chin on an aggressive budget that does attract a lot of critics but also tries to address some of the long-term deficit issues. that's one thing where romney has had some difficulty in specifics. paul ryan brings so many specifics, then you need a truckload to deliver them and to try to go through it and figure out what can they live with going forward during the campaign and what do they have to try to sort of tamp down a bit. ryan has done his part to say i'm joining romney but that doesn't really end the questions, looking for that daylight between them. >> one of the things that's most awkward about all this, major, is that the republicans are attacking barack obama for cutting medicare, when republicans like ryan have been calling upon him for being, you know, standing up to the challenge of cutting medicare. >> right. and those same cuts are in the paul ryan budget because they're built into the baseline. now, already we've gone two degrees into wonkville and that's not a comfortable place

for romney or ryan. it happens to be essentially true and worth pointing out when this debate goes forward. the central difference on medicare is not whether or not you reduce the rate of growth. both seek to do that. it's methodology, providers or do you put the power in the hands of medicare recipients who would no longer simply go to a doctor and have the government reimburse their physician but they would have money in their own hands, go out in the private market and find the best insurance they can. that's the paul ryan approach. he thinks it's innovative. many think it's dangerous and would reduce coverage and create problems for seniors that don't exist now. that's the debate i think paul ryan is perfectly comfortable having. i'm not quite sure if governor romney is comfortable or well versed in that debate and its contours. >> one of the fascinating things about the degree to which medicare has been brought front and center by the ryan pick is that of all the question marks and lack of details in the romney campaign, he's actually been fairly clear about what he would do on medicare and it's

almost, if not word for word, it lines up very, very closely, almost identically, with the ryan plan, and so ryan's just brought it up but romney was already there. i think we're going to see in the next few weeks questions about social security, questions about some of the specific cuts in the ryan budget, where -- >> discretionary student loans, things like that. >> let me quickly show all of you, this is deeply affecting, really, kelly o'donnell, this is your story. we have only a matter of seconds but i wanted to show some of the pictures you've shared which are the pictures of patrick kennedy, the former congressman, visiting his colleague, former colleague, jesse jackson, jr. at the mayo clinic. >> the first time we have had any insight into what life is like inside treatment for jesse jackson, jr., who left congress june 10th on what was then a mysterious leave of absence. we now know he's being treated for bipolar disorder. patrick kennedy has suffered with some of the same issues. we talked to him and will have a

story on tonight's "nightly news" that goes into this further, trying to shed light on what patrick calls a deep depression that jesse jackson jr. is dealing with. his own father, reverend jackson, is also acknowledging what a struggle it is but he is working hard to get that treatment and his political future will be decided sometime later. >> kelly, thank you for that reporting. thank you to ruth and to major. always great to see you guys. have a great weekend, all. meanwhile, secretary of state hillary clinton holding the record now for traveling to more countries, 108 and still counting, than any of her predecessors. others have flown more miles but secretary clinton's stats are still impressive. 867,000 miles so far since she became secretary of state. conde-nast traveler hit the road with her on one of her recent trips and kevin doyle spent nine days with the secretary. i don't know if you were sitting up front. i sit in the back with the press corps and it isn't fun on those three abreast, the seats don't go back, middle seats.

did you get one of the good seats? >> i was all the way in the back. no, i didn't draw well in the lottery so i had actually a middle seat. i will say, however, i always fly coach commercially and this is nicer than that. so i have to say at least that much. you get a little bit more leg room, little bit more recline and the food is way better. >> let's talk about it, let's show the pictures. what did you learn? i think the first picture we have is hillary clinton in africa. first of all, the fact she's gone to so many places. what is the diplomatic import of what she's accomplishing on the road? >> i was with her in china, bangladesh and india so you saw the diplomatic import in india when she was dealing with one of the biggest diplomatic crises between the u.s. and china in memory. i think the remarkable thing is

while that was going on behind the scenes she continued to meet with the president, she went to all of the meetings and even made time to go to a clean cook stove event, of all things, because this is one of the causes that are important to her. this was something that was surprising. she, as i wrote in the story, following her is like following a woman shot out of a cannon with rocket boosters strapped to her pantsuit, yet her days are scheduled down to the nanosecond but when she could find time to relax, when she could take a breather, she doesn't. she uses her rock star status to draw the spotlight to causes that are important to her. namely women and children. so we also went to an event where agencies that are rehabilitating women who were sold into sex trafficking, a huge problem in asia, they were highlighting these programs, the women performed and you really got to see that while she wasn't

attending to affairs of state, she was drawing attention to the causes that are important to her and the difference that it made for those women, they really felt empowered and validated. it was quite something to see. >> my experience since covering her as first lady and even before is that she defines affairs of state as being women's issues, women's issues are human rights issues, as she said memorably in beijing in 1995, and so that is part of -- she does not go to a country where she does not stop into a women's event. >> correct. that was interesting to see. she also does town halls, which she really recognizes that affairs are moved quite powerfully now from the bottom up. as much as from the top down. so she meets with ngos and with students. a few hundred people at a time. she'll take any question which is really something to see as well. you can see the depth of her knowledge. as you said, she's been to 108

countries as secretary of state, 80 countries as first lady. so she has quite a world view and an informed world view. >> kevin doyle, thank you very much. travels with hillary clinton. up next, a medicare reality check. [ male announcer ] this is anna, her long day teaching the perfect swing

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coming up on "news nation" in just 15 minutes, the vetting of paul ryan not by the romney camp but by the media and there's already some inconsistencies. ryan told a local tv station he did not ask for stimulus money when the records show he did. he was talking tough on china's currency manipulation even though he voted against a bill that would have cracked down on it. how the romney campaign is handling this today. plus, a story that's gotten a lot of attention online. after a woman is killed in a car accident, her family is forced to take on a major insurance

company. i'll talk with the brother of that woman about his battle. mitt romney tried to sell the medicare debate thursday using a white board to lay out differences between his plan and the president's. here's romney claiming these benefits for his plan. >> as you can see, there's no change in medicare for seniors. none. under my plan. so for these down here, all right, you asked me -- which of these two do you think is better? going bankrupt or being solvent? well, obviously being solvent. >> does anyone have the facts straight? for more on that, let's bring in ezra klein, columnist for the "washington post" and bloomberg and david leonard, washington bureau chief and pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "new york times." welcome both. david, you and ezra have been writing and talking about this. we're trying to get to the heart of what the differences are between these two approaches. you hear the claims, you hear the republicans, kevin madden on the program today saying that

the president would cut $716 billion from current beneficiaries. what are the facts on that? >> well, the idea that the obama plan cuts medicare is true. obama care includes cuts to medicare in it. the basic problem we have here is that medicare is very popular and the only way to solve the deficit is to cut it, to change it, and so what both candidates are trying to do is accuse the other side of cutting medicare, when in fact there is no solution to the deficit that doesn't cut medicare. i think that explains a lot of the back and forth that you hear this week. >> ezra, what about the ryan plan and how it would change medicare as well as adapting $716 billion in the baseline as a reduction in the rate of increase? >> okay, i've got to tell you, i understood the ryan pick or thought i did. you pick paul ryan because you are going to run as a campaign that is sort of willing to make the tough choices on medicare, willing to cut medicare. i really don't understand the

paul ryan pick in the new context of the romney campaign in which you're the campaign that doesn't want to cut medicare, that you would never cut medicare, because ryan's budgets have been pretty -- have had really significant medicare cuts. much, much larger, particularly in the initial ryan budget, the one from 2012 that was released in 2011. so in that budget, it would have eliminated traditional medicare fee for service option, instead, seniors would have got a voucher, they could choose between different private plans and the voucher would have grown at the rate of inflation much slower than health care costs. eventually the voucher would be worth a lot less than the cost of the lowest, the cheapest plan and the congressional budget office said it would be a $6,400 cost shift to beneficiaries. next year, ryan softened that, allowing traditional medicare as an option alongside the other public plans and the voucher grows more quickly, but now it's growing at a rate that is very similar, if not exactly the same, as the rate president obama would like to have medicare grow under his plan in

which he's got some other strength and cost control maneuvers to cut down costs on the provider side. over time they came in more similarly but initially the ryan budget's medicare cuts were very dramatic, much more so than anything the obama administration, for better or worse, has proposed. >> of course, the other criticism is that he has not -- he's left defense intact and has not conceded anything on the tax side so that's the other question that deficit hawks have about the ryan approach. david, what about the republican argument, though, that the president's medicare cuts or the slowing down in the growth of the rate of increase in medicare is really a gimmick because it is coming from providers, not from beneficiaries, and that that is always something that congress blinks on when it comes down to it? >> well, i think, look, it's a real cut, to some extent you have to say the republicans can't have it both ways. they can't on the one hand say obama's cuts a terrible cut that's going to damage people and on the other hand, it's a fiction that's not going to have

any effect whatsoever. i think it's fair to say it's a real cut. it may have some effects. what we're setting up here is neither side has a plan to neither side has a plan to completely eliminate the long-term deficit. they both have ideas that would make a substantial difference. obama talks about a combination of modest changes to medicare largely leaving it as it is but still making some changes. increasing taxes on high income households and doing a bunch of other things that would make a difference. paul ryan talks about making really deep cuts to medicaid and significant changes to medicare that in the long term probably amount to cuts to medicare and both would make a substantial difference in the deficit. so i guess what i would hope is we move to a place where we can debate which of the two approaches is right rather than each side claiming they want to cut the deficit but they don't actually want to do it in any way that would ever affect anyone. the only way we can cut our deficit is to make changes that

will affect people. you can't have a sort of magic solution where you get rid of the deficit and still have all of the programs as they are. >> let's talk about what really matters which is what you wrote about today in the "new york times" which is your magic solution for preserving strasburg for the playoffs. give it to us in brief. >> being talked about in washington almost as much as paul ryan is steven strasburg. the washington nationals have announced they are going to shut him down and not use him in the playoffs. they are worried about his arm condition. there are a lot of people who don't think the nats are being sufficiently creative. there would be ways to limit his innings now, nothing radical, just use him less, maybe have him take a couple weeks off which pitchers do all the time, and still be available for the playoffs. if they don't we'll end up in a remarkable situation, one of the best teams in baseball is going to go to the playoffs, voluntarily bench their best pitcher. echoes of 1965 when sandy cofax

didn't pitch game one of the world series because of coyom kipp kippur. >> i think we're talking about this more in washington frankly than medicare or paul ryan. thank you very much. creative solutions. always welcomed. ezra klein, thanks to you. who had the worst week in washington? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles

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who had the worst week in washington? msnbc contributor chris cillizza is back with us. i think you're looking at joe biden. he is a tremendous asset to the team and is also joe biden. >> exactly. >> therein lies the rub. >> andrea, he is someone who as a reporter you like to cover because he answers your questions and he speaks his mind. unfortunately, he answers your question and he speaks his mind and sometimes for joe biden and the obama campaign that's less

good, that was on display this week the chains comment he made in virginia obviously drew a lot of attention to a place i don't think the obama campaign wanted to go. a bad week for joe biden. >> chris, we have to go. you have a couple great days off. >> thank you. >> see you in tampa coming up next. thanks so much to everybody. that's it for this edition. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> great to see you. have a great weekend. in our next hour the vetting of paul ryan not by the romney camp but by the media. there's already some inconsistencies. ryan told a local tv station he did not ask for stimulus money when the record shows he did. and talking tough on china's currency manipulation though he voted against a bill that would have cracked down on it. how the romney campaign is handling this today plus a story that's got a lot of attention online. after a woman is killed in a car accident her family is forced to take on a major insurance company. i will talk with her brother about the fight he waged and

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