CLINTON, Iowa -- Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan sought to add some specifics to Mitt Romney's proposals on Tuesday amid criticism that the GOP ticket hadn't fully detailed its plans.
Responding to a woman's question about why Ryan wouldn't answer a question this past Sunday on Fox News about the Romney-Ryan tax plan's math, Ryan argued the television format didn't give him enough time.
“When you get into math conversation, it can take a little while. Let me give you some specific answers right now,” the Wisconsin congressman said early Tuesday morning standing outside the Clinton County Courthouse. He continued to tick through their 5-point plan for a strong middle class including about energy, education, trade.
“The problem is, it just took me about 5 minutes to go into all of this with you and when you are on a 30-second TV show, you can’t do it as much. But the point is, go to our website, you can see all this,” Ryan said after a several minute riff about their policies. “Mitt Romney has put more specifics, more details about how to grow the economy, about how to save Medicare, Social Security, about how to prevent the debt crisis than the incumbent President of the United States has.”
President Obama’s re-election campaign shot back at these claims in a statement.
"Congressman Ryan can't attend his own campaign rallies without being called out for failing to provide specifics about what Mitt Romney would do if elected. That's because just one day before the first debate, Mitt Romney has refused to say which deductions he'd cut for the middle class in order to pay for his $250,000 tax cuts for multi-millionaires,” spokesman Danny Kanner wrote. “And he's refused to say how he'd replace Obamacare or Wall Street reform to protect middle class families or prevent the big banks from writing their own rules again. They won't share those details with the country because they know that the details are bad for middle class Americans.”
Ryan’s stop here along the Mississippi River was a homecoming for his wife, Janna, and her two sisters and father, who joined at the event in Eastern Iowa. Prudence Petersen Little, Janna’s mother, moved to a house in Clinton when she was very young and Janna’s grandmother remained in the home until 2004.
The Ryans stopped by the red-painted home following the town hall here to meet with the new owners and the three Little girls reminisced on memories of visiting when they were growing up.
The congressman finishes off Tuesday in the Hawkeye State with two more events in Muscatine and Burlington.
