>> we are back with two roundtable irregulars. kate andersen brower, bloomberg reporter, and jojosh boak with the "the fiscal times." the big headline of course is the addition of paul ryan to this presidential campaign in a wa it was welcod by bo repubublicans and democrats. >> very rare, but paul ryan has a track record of being a house committee chrman. democrat>> you have written about the president's relationship with paul ryan which has b been nuous at times. what do you think are going to

be t dynamics when it comes down tobama-ryan? >> they insi they are not going to focus on paul ryan. iin chicago, obama has repeatedly said paul ryan is the ideological leader of the republican party in congress. the campaign is very exciteded hitting back on paul ryan's budg. obama and paul ryan have a relationsh spanning several years. ryan could decide the health care plato his face in 201010. obama criticized ryan's plan while he was in t the audiee in 2011 said theyave a a history of back and forth. i am sure we will see more of it goingg forward in the campaiaign. >> you wrote an article talng about how the election is a

clearer choice after paul ryan.n. >> its defined on very clear ideological terms. the current path we are on is sustainable, but you have to choose which dirtion you want to go. is a path is one in which we sesee a radically smaller government. medicare becing a voucher-type program for the statete's. spending on non--defee shnkinquite drastically. we do n not see that unde the obama plan which raises taxes on people making more than $250,0000 a year. those lin become so much more clearer than before for voters at a time wheindepependent voters are few and far between. >> a stark choice and plays bh into their hands. inresting to watatch in the last few d days, mitt romney talking

about obama's campaign. obama in turn has made references to mitt romney ststrapping the dog on the roof of the car. they are going bk to really partisan politics. i do not know how much sharply these attacks canet. >> when paul ryan was made the vice presidential nominee for the republican party, ththere was a lot ofof talk about ok this is one we are going to get down to substance and issues. >> when you are throwing mud sometimes there are a lot of rich minerals in it. it does not mean it is going to stop b being thrown, but it is thicker. >> this week andnd met mitt romney with his whi board wanting to talk about medicare and then answered a question about his

taxes, saying he has paid at least 13%. seems like every time there is an issue they wa to talk about, candidates seem to put their footn their mouth. >> the obama campaign is not stping away from what joe biden said. talking about the middle-class. it was not a racial thing. you would think there would be ststepping away, but these attks are e just getting sharper and sharper. >> does anybody care what mitt romney paid in income taxes? >> i think there are a couple of fferent ways of looking at it. for r thee obama perspective, , how much mitt romney actually pa as a wealthy american matters. we have to consider transparency. mitt romney is going to have to

prest his choices to the americanan people. how is he goingo expand foreigign pocy and economic decisis? the third most importantnt thing is mitt mney has been running for president since 2007. he could have t taken care ofis taxes a long time ago. we have t seenen him dohat. that raises questions abo his ility to plan. >> the romney campaigned said this just is more fodder to nitpick. itit is interesting to see -- i ththink people care about this issue.. he has released his 2010 taxes showing and above 13% rate. what he said yesterday it isis doing nothing to quellll thi debatete. priorities usa has a an

advertisement saying under mitt romney's plan -- paul ryan's plan, mi romney woululd payy 1%. >> a bad choice ther way. we have to make choice to go to commercial break and we are going to resume our discussion with the round table after the break. first, the federal hot minute. >> as elected officials look to reduce federal spendnding executive cocompensation has come under scrutiny. for this year, the ceiling is $763,000. senators have introduced a bill that limits this amount to the president's salary of $400,000. the administstration wan to lower the ceiling evenower.

however, capping executive compensation would hurt contractors' ability to attract the best talent to the most challenging government programs. another write the bill could further erode the thin profit margins of contractors. executive compensation might be an easy target but capping them could lead to unintended coequees. you careadhe stotoriest la.c.

[ male announcer ] you paid in to medicare for years. every paycheck. w, when you need it obama has cut $716 billion dollars from medicare. why? to pay for obamacare. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare is going to a massive new government program that's not for you. the romney-ryan plan protects medicare benefits for today's seniors and strengthenthe plan r the next generation. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

>> we are back witith josh boak of "the fiscal timeses," and kate

dersen brower from bloomberg. let's talk about this campaign. there have been a lot of distractions from the issues. is this a referendum on obama? is this a competing visionsns for a way ahead? whwhat becomes the ctral issue now that paul an has bee married to the republican campaign? >> a couple things. a lot of this is going to be conditioned-based. certainly all of this can be framed along those issues of thee paul rn budget. perhaps just as important as all of this is the question of how you g get voters to the polls. and a lott of this is goining to be an aggressive ground game to drive turnonout. ultimatetely it is the leg workrk that y you are not seeing below the surface about getting people

toto the p polls which will decide who wins this. >> i went to a few swing states and the talked to voters and it is a amazing to see the number of people who are unenthusiastic.c. it is really about getting those people enenergized. there is only about 3% to 5% who are actually indendent vots. >> i would say one thing to pay attention to is we arere goi to hahave four debates. we saw a tremendous amount of volatility on opinions ababoutt the candidate between debate. if that patrn holds, that could be a major drdriver for what is ahead. >> i think the economy is e main issue that people are voting on. state unemployment rates are up in every key swing state except

ohio which p preses a chahallenge for the president athis point. now adding paul ryan to the tick they do have a specific an they are running on. as much as mitt romy migight try to disistanchimself fromom that plan, it is something the obama campaign is going to be hammering on. >> all we would talk aut is policy and medicare. the reality is we wou rather see "danci with the stars." the one place with the presidential camign has been an economic stimulus is in campaign spending. they passed the $500 million mark most of that going to advertising. do t these ads actually helelp get people to vote? do these things turn peopleff

byhe e? we are not even in the general electi seasoson yet and we are at half a billion dollars. >> it is not necessarily a better ng, but yo recognize all ththe lyrics. >> as much as we talk about them, there is the susuper pacac advertisement linkedin mitt romney to the death of this woman whose husband w worked at bain capital. ththat ad ran only once i in ohio. i thinknk it could swayoters one waway or the oer. that ad saysys lot about the media's role in the campaign. >> there is a matchup on line of obobama doing it. >> let's change gears. josh you wrote about how the

economy y is affecting people's college dreams which trickles down to the economy years from now about how many people gogo to college. >> this is one of these real wild card at the ment because parents right now are writiting tuition checks. one of the fallouts of thee housing crisis -- people are taing about the inklings of a recovery y beginning, b parents dodo not have access to the same kind of liquidity they need to pay for a college education whichh is haviving repercussions. their ability to obtain a degree, and that hurts s our abilility tobtain a skilled work force. these arare reall lingering aftershocks that we are not tatalking about b but we should be. >> thank you for joining us. we will be back a after the bak to explain our number of

>> it is time to wrap up p our ogram with the number of the week. 18,918,296, the number of passengers who flew in and out of the airport. we are so glad to have had you

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