Bill's in wild third-way mode today. Apparently, thrown off balance by the successful Democratic use of the Medicare issue in NY-26, Bill is panicking that somehow bi-partisanship will not rule the day. And Medicare will escape being on the chopping block. Bill appeared in a forum at the Pete "We Must Cut Medicare and Social Security" Peterson Foundation.
"You shouldn't draw the conclusion that the New York race means that nobody can do anything solve the rising Medicare costs,” said during his speech. “I just don't agree with that. I think you should draw the conclusion that the people made a judgment that this proposal in the Republican is not the right one. I agree with that, but I'm afraid that the Democrats will draw the conclusion that because Congressman Ryan's proposal, I think, is not the best one, that we shouldn't do anything and I completely disagree with that."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
Not satisfied with that, Bill gave "Medicare for None" Ryan a pep talk:
"So anyway, I told them before you got here, I said I’m glad we won this race in New York," Clinton told Ryan, when the two met backstage at a forum on the national debt held by the Pete Peterson Foundation. But he added, “I hope Democrats don't use this as an excuse to do nothing.”
Ryan told Clinton he fears that now nothing will get done in Washington.
“My guess is it’s going to sink into paralysis is what’s going to happen. And you know the math. It’s just, I mean, we knew we were putting ourselves out there. You gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing moving,” Ryan said.
Clinton told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should “give me a call.” Ryan said he would.
Finally, Bill apparently "misspoke" when he said failure to raise the debt ceiling might not be such a bad thing:
"If we defaulted on the debt once for a couple of days, it might not be calamitous," Clinton said at a fiscal summit sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
. . . .
Clinton's spokesman, Matt McKenna, released a statement Wednesday afternoon clarifying Clinton's remarks:
"We regret if there has been a misinterpretation of a comment President Clinton made about raising the debt limit. President Clinton did not in any way mean to suggest that a default would not be highly damaging for the economy even for a very short period of time. He inadvertently misspoke. What he meant to say was that if a vote to extend the debt limit failed in advance of a default, that might not be harmful for a couple of days, but that if people thought that we might actually default, that in his words 'we were literally not going to pay our bills anymore, then they would stop buying our debt.'"]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Somebody stop him. Because it seems he can't stop himself. Just collect you speaking fees Bill, and stay out of domestic policy. Your day has passed.