Kevin Hasset, a Romney economic adviser, appeared on CNN's Your Money program this morning. My ears perked up because I was kind of surprised at how clumsily he discussed the topic of entitlements and how blatantly he laid out the plan to "go after" Medicare.
David Gergen asks Hassett about Romney's plan to address the "fiscal cliff." Exchange begins at 0:35:
David Gergen: If you're elected what are you going to do about the fiscal cliff?
Kevin Hassett: Yeah, well, you know Gov. Romney has a very detailed plan, he goes after Medicare... reforms for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security—
David Gergen: Would you push that?
Kevin Hassett: He's got all these things on the table.
Granted, it's nothing we don't know, but it's interesting how he catches himself and softens his rhetoric with "reform" after first using the phrase "goes after" like Medicare is a beast to be hunted down.
And of course, these are the only three government spending programs that rate mentioning for reform before Hassett segues to criticizing the president. There is not, apparently, a dime to be saved in corporate tax subsidies or the vast Department of Defense budget.
It seems that's a pretty good clip to put in the vault for Florida. I hear they like their Medicare the way it is down there. The more Democrats talk about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the more we can talk about what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to do with them.
And what they plan to do ain't good, and it ain't popular either.