The Great Debate

[Geee]

Weekly Standard:

Paul Ryan’s dissection of Obama- --care at the White House health care summit on February 25, 2010, elevated him to a stature in Washington rare for a House member. The summit dawdled along for seven hours. Six riveting minutes of analysis delivered by Ryan, as President Obama listened a few seats away, broke the tedium.

Obama’s reply is largely forgotten. Rather than responsive, he was evasive. He ignored Ryan’s sweeping critique and said he wanted to “follow up on a couple points.” He picked one that Ryan hadn’t mentioned. He asked if Ryan thought Medicare Advantage was “working well,” then didn’t give Ryan a chance to answer.

Given this encounter, you can imagine Obama’s wariness of debating Ryan on the 2012 budget and everything that goes with it, from spending and debt to tax reform and Medicaid. And there’s the larger issue, the future of the country. Obama says he wants to “win” it. Ryan believes we’re “on the brink of national bankruptcy.”

Obama and Ryan haven’t talked since the summit, except for the president’s brief call to Ryan after Republicans captured the House in last November’s election. Yet Obama and Ryan are the only worthy and appropriate debaters. Both are leaders of their party, Obama as the Democratic president, Ryan because he’s been designated by Republicans as the architect of their budget and its plan for restraining the growth of government.