Home  >  Nebraska  >  Kerrey: Where does Fischer stand on the Ryan Plan?

Kerrey: Where does Fischer stand on the Ryan Plan?

By   /   August 12, 2012  /   16 Comments

Bob Kerrey

With the Romney-Ryan ticket off and running, Democratic Senate hopeful Bob Kerrey is demanding Republican Deb Fischer come clean on the controversial Ryan budget.

Meanwhile Fischer is backing the Romney-Ryan ticket as a “clear alternative to President Obama’s and Bob Kerrey’s out of control spending, middle-class tax increases, and opposition to a balanced budget amendment.”

Deb Fischer

Kerrey says the Ryan Plan “goes too far on entitlement cuts (Social Security and Medicare) and doesn’t provide the shared sacrifice we need.”

In addition Kerrey accuses Fischer of ducking Ryan’s specific budget proposals. 

“State Senator Fischer has had more than enough time to study the Ryan Plan, said Kerrey. “With Ryan now on the Republican ticket, it is time to know where she stands.”

Questioned by Nebraska Watchdog last month (see video below) Fischer said when it comes to the Ryan Plan “there are parts in it you can agree with.”

Fischer appeared to back portions of the plan specifically those dealing with what she calls the priorities of government: defense, infrastructure and broadband telecommunications.

As for other parts of the Ryan budget she said, “To put a plan out there is to start a process so you can address these big policy issues. The Ryan Plan was put out in the House of Representatives. It hasn’t been discussed or any budget hasn’t been discussed or passed in the Senate. That’s what needs to happen in the Senate and that’s what will happen in January if I’m elected.”

Reported by Joe Jordan, joe@nebraskawatchdog.org

Editor’s note: to subscribe to News Updates from Nebraska Watchdog at no cost, click here


YouTube

 

 

 

 

 

Please, feel free to "steal our stuff"! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

Joe Jordan

  • http://twitter.com/GerardHarbison Gerard Harbison

    The Medicare changes in the Ryan plan are exactly what Kerrey was pushing in 1999, when he was in the Senate. The Social Security privatization scheme Kerrey proposed in 1994 goes far beyond anything in the Ryan plan. Now he says it’s radical and extreme? What a weasel!

  • Biff

    Well Gerard, the ‘weasel’ remark certainly elevates the debate, doesn’t it?
    I do like Kerrey’s ‘shared sacrifice’ approach. That common ‘we’re all in this together’ theme is what has made this country great. Today’s approach seems to be “every man for himself” or, more appropriately, “i’ve got mine and I’m not sharing with anyone!”
    Finally, you will be able to count on Mrs. Fischer being in lockstep with Romney-Ryan every bit of the way. One reason Mrs. Fischer won’t debate: she’s in over her head, and she knows it.

  • Countrybanker

    Kerrey was correct years ago. Ryan is correct now. I am not sure what Kerrey opposes in Ryan plan, but Gerard is correct, they are similar. Both Ryan and Kerrey have guts. Deb Fischer is in over her head. She is not a game changer; more of the same.

  • Bam

    You misogynists with your “she’s over her head” – as if you have any practical experience to make any judgment. She’s going to vote the way Nebraska wants and what the country needs. Kerrey wouldn’t debate a woman when he led her by double digits, either. Was he “over his head” because he lacked the cojones to debate Jan Stoney as many times as she wanted, Biff? Or are you just down on ALL women?

  • resistwemuch

    Biff: And I am certain that BK won’t be in “lockstep” with corpse men obama, stand up chuck biden, pelosi, and girlfriend beater g. soros. I believe that the following quote fits you perfectly; “A liberal,” Robert Frost once said, “is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.”

  • Jazzee

    BIF: What is ‘shared sacrifice’ can you tell me? Does that mean if we tax the ‘rich’ I will finally get a job and a check??? Medicare has to be fixed, loopholes have to be closed, read Tom Coburn’s study about the duplications in government all should be CUT, changes must be made we all know that because we spend spend spend and never cut a dang thing. Maybe barry obama should just decide to pay us all whatever he decides, pay for our healthcare, and make sure we have enough of a ‘living wage’ so we can afford phones, big TV’s and whatever else we want. Is that what he means when he says everyone deserves a ‘fair share?’ NO OnE ever asks the fool what it means in real terms can you tell me my fair share?

  • D. Mark

    Washington needs to make some tough choices, we cannot continue to spend money that we do not have. We all must all sacrifice to make America better, not continue on the path that we have had for the last three years! We must vote in November and make the changes that America needs!!!!!
    We must go after Medicare, Medicaid and the Military budget and put everyone to work, there should not be any free lunches in America. We must work for what we get, not expect the Goverment to provide for us!

  • Countrybanker

    Bam: Are you aware that Bob kerrey supports Coburn’s well thought through plan on cutting the deficit???

  • Dan

    Last time i checked, cosmic bob loved obamacare and it’s 700 billion in cuts to medicare and especially the 15 member death panel. In fact gob didnt think it was even CLOSE to liberal enough for him. Nothing short of 100% total socialism will satisfy new york bob. I was getting worried there joe, i mean you hadnt kissed kerreys butt for so long, but you are a raging media liberal after all. And biff you’re a clueless idiot, this country was founded on rugged individualism, and why dont you go look up what the rich govt elites did in your socialist utopias throughout history preaching the “were in this together” crap, stalin, hitler, mussolini all preached the same bs that you preach, what was the result chump?

  • ip

    i agree with you Dan, that is where all this will go. People will wake up one morning and the pledge to the stars and stripes will no longer be an issue as the hammer and sickle will keep you in line like never before. And these fools will never know what happened

  • Dan

    I’m just throwing it out there for all you kerrey butt kissers like joe jordan and biff, kerrey voted AGAINST every repub budget, he voted AGAINST clintons BIPARTISAN welfare reform SIX TIMES!!! So id just like to ask, where exactly is this record of reaching across to get things done rotgut all you kerrey lovers are spewing? You guys are thinking of jim exon, kerrey was a classic tow the line raging lunatic liberal.

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    The REAL “death panels” will be the Private Insurance Corporate actuaries who will be in charge of setting the rates and coverages of the Private Insurance Corporations that will replace Medicare under the Ryan Budget. I, for one, do NOT want to face the same crappy, over-priced, individual/employer offered, coverage-at-the-insurer’s-whim “health insurance” that the Private Insurance Corporations crammed down our throats prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act that I’ve had to deal with the past 35 years, fourteen years from now when (hopefully) I am (still) eligible for Medicare.

    The promise was made 35 years ago when I entered the workforce that if I paid my withholding taxes diligently on my wages, that a small retirement stipend and low/no cost medical coverage would be my reward in my old age. That my great grandparents, grand parents and parents were/are able to partake of this social contract that we have with our fellow Americans and that I may not because of the GREED, SELFISHNESS, CORRUPTION, and IDEOLOGICAL MADNESS of people such as the Koch brothers and their shills like Karl Rove, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan or Willard Romney just burns me no end.

    For those of you who whine about “programs we can’t afford with money we ‘do not have’”, well we USED to be able to AFFORD them BEFORE all the tax-cuts that were made on the false lie of “trickle down” aka “pissing on everyone but the very wealthy” that would “create jobs” (overseas) hamstrung this country’s revenue stream and has turned the Great American Dream of being able to retire into the Great American Nightmare of working until the day you die, except for the fortunate 2% at the top, for whom Market Crashes and Health Problems have no effect.

    No, the reality of the Ryan Budget is that 98% of America will NEVER be able to retire, will ALWAYS be a slave to Private Insurance Corporations for their health care from the time they’re born to the time they die on the job, and the ONLY people living the “American Dream” will be the ultra-wealthy who have stolen and squeezed ever dollar they can out of the Middle Class and Lower Class.

    So, Jazzee, Bam, Resist, Dan, ip, et al, are ALL of you (except those of you already over 65, if any, who are already collecting Social Security and Medicare) ready to be resigned to an elderly life of choosing between eating cat food or forgoing needed medications/treatment just to satisfy your misplaced ideological paradigm? Are you prepared to condemn your own children and their children to the same? Don’t even try to use the canard of “wise individual investment for one’s retirement” because the Republican-caused crash of the Stock Market and the Global Economy in 2007 under Bush the Lesser PROVED the fallacy of a paper retirement investment portfolio’s stability and more importantly, security, when the CRIMINALS in the “INDUSTRY” are ALLOWED to BUY the system and GAME it to THEIR FAVOR; UNCHECKED, UNREGULATED, UNWATCHED and UNPUNISHED! So what do you have to say about your “rugged individualism” bullshit now, when in reality it is just a euphemism for unbridled greed and corruption and shitting on your neighbor at every opportunity?

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    If you’re going to rant, at least get your facts straight. It’s a $500B savings in Medicare derived from streamlining administration, modernizing data management, eliminating duplication of services and creating a more efficient method of providing services, NOT “cuts” (and there is NO “Death Panel” ANYWHERE in the ACA, either) that you far-right neo-fascists just love to spout off about trying to be the loudest voice in the room as a scare tactic upon those who hav not yet informed themselves to the truth of what the ACA actually provides for them.

  • Medicare Reform

    I want to know where Mr. Kerrey stands on Medicare reform. When he was the Senator from Nebraska he was on the Breaux-Thomas commission to deal with reforming Medicare. He was one of two Democrats who voted for the same type of “payment support” offered by Paul Ryan.

    Until then, give me a break Bob.

  • Medicare Reform

    I’ve been asking the same question! :)

  • Joan

    Watching from Lincoln….Thank you for correcting the in correct info on the AHA. It has been outragous that this Congress at the onset of the Obama administration set out to distroy his Presidency and this election should be a reflection of unseating every Republican up for election. Because of Mitch McConnell and his ilk this Country almost lost it all. The Republican war on women is a disgrace, we need to clean house. The Country needs to go forward not backward.