Biden-Ryan vice-presidential debate

(CROSSTALK) BIDEN: With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.

The fact is that we're in a situation where we inherited a god-awful circumstance.

And he's -- he's conflating two issues.

RYAN: Was there a litmus test on them?

BIDEN: The two budgets the congressman introduced have eviscerated all the things that the middle class cares about.

They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, turning Medicare into a piggybank for Obamacare.

RYAN: ... income adjusts (inaudible) these premium support payments by taking down the subsidies for wealthy people.

On a rather somber note, one month ago tonight, on the anniversary of 9/11, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Both President Obama and Governor Romney have said they will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even if that means military action.

RYAN: Well, we agree with the same red line, actually, they do on chemical weapons, but not putting American troops in, other than to secure those chemical weapons.

And instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class we're going to level the playing field; we're going to give you a

That's got to be within the national security interests of the American people.

He'll tell you about vouchers.

And so, in order to solve this peacefully -- which is everybody's goal -- you have to have the ayatollahs change their minds.

And where I come from, overseas, which is Lake Superior, the Canadians, they dropped their tax rates to 15 percent.

On a rather somber note, one month ago tonight, on the anniversary of 9/11, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi.

The idea that we could borrow $831 billion, spend it on all of these special interest groups, and that it would work out just fine, that unemployment would never get to 8 percent -- it went up above 8 percent for 43 months.

RADDATZ: I want to move on here to Medicare and entitlements.

We could have more easily identified the free Syrian army, the freedom fighters, working with our allies, the Turks, the Qataris, the Saudis, had we had a better plan in place to begin with working through our allies.

Even their own chief actuary at Medicare backs this up.

When Barack Obama was elected, they had enough fissile material -- nuclear material to make one bomb.

And we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts, because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we're cutting down on defense, it makes us more weak.

Not spending more money as much as they say is not a spending cut.

We had -- the great recession hit; 9 million people lost their job; $1.7 -- $1.6 trillion in wealth lost in equity in your homes, in retirement accounts for the middle class.

We should have spoken out right away when the green revolution was up and starting; when the mullahs in Iran were attacking their people.

And I'm going to move back and forth between foreign and domestic, since that is what a vice president or president would have to do.

RYAN: That means like embargoes and sanctions and overflights, those are things that don't put American troops on the ground.

(CROSSTALK) RADDATZ: But you agree with the timeline.

They found no evidence of cronyism.

What we are saying is, lower tax rates across the board and close loopholes, primarily to the higher-income people.

You will no doubt hear their enthusiasm at the end of the debate -- and right now, as we welcome Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan.

RYAN: ... on high-interest people.

We had -- the great recession hit; 9 million people lost their job; $1.7 -- $1.6 trillion in wealth lost in equity in your homes, in retirement accounts for the middle class.

The average tax rate on businesses in the industrialized world is 25 percent, and the president wants the top effective tax rate on successful small businesses to go above 40 percent.

Or remember when he said health insurance premiums will go down $2,500 per family, per year?

If you're near the donut hole, you have $800 -- $600 more to help your prescription drug costs.

Iran is more isolated today than when we took office.

And with regard to Social Security, we will not -- we will not privatize it.

RADDATZ: Can you declare anything off-limits?

The loophole -- the biggest loophole they take advantage of is the carried interest loophole and -- and capital gains loophole.

They are elderly people who in fact are living off of Social Security.

He didn't demonize them.

Marines urinating on Taliban corpses?

They keep misquoting him, but let me tell you about the Mitt Romney I know.

And instead of signing pledges to Grover Norquist not to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class we're going to level the playing field; we're going to giv

We went ahead and made sure that we cut taxes for the middle class.

If we don't shore up Social Security, when we run out of the IOUs, when the program goes bankrupt, a 25 percent across-the-board benefit cut kicks in on current seniors in the middle of their retirement.

The vice president talks about sanctions on Iran.

With regard to the assault on the Catholic church, let me make it absolutely clear, no religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy Hospital, any hospital, none has to either refer contrac

He went to the U.N. and in his speech at the U.N. he said six times -- he talked about the YouTube video.

Look, you -- you both saw Benjamin Netanyahu hold up that picture of a bomb with a red line and talking about the red line being in spring.

And I'm going to move back and forth between foreign and domestic, since that is what a vice president or president would have to do.

The Obama administration had projected that it would fall below 6 percent now after the addition of close to a trillion dollars in stimulus money.

We stopped overpaying insurance companies, doctors and hospitals.

RYAN: When you take a look at what has happened just in the last few weeks, they sent the U.N. ambassador out to say that this was because of a protest and a YouTube video.

It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, to at the same time put a prescription drug benefit on the credit card, a trillion-dollar tax cut for the very wealthy.

It's because this administration watered down sanctions, delayed sanctions, tried to stop us for putting the tough sanctions in place.

And I've never met two guys who're more down on America across the board.

Why does he go after the childcare...

It's about getting 12 million jobs, higher take-home pay, getting people out of poverty into the middle class.

BIDEN: First of all, I was there when Ronald Reagan tax breaks -- he gave specifics of what he was going to cut, number one, in terms of tax expenditures.

The State Department has now made clear, there were no protesters there.

And we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts, because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we're cutting down on defense, it makes us more weak.

You know, usually when there's a crisis, we pull together.

And I might add, this so-called -- I know we don't want to use the fancy word " sequester," this automatic cut -- that was part of a debt deal that they asked for.

There are just at the Department of Energy over 100 criminal investigations that have been launched into just how stimulus...

We wouldn't be outsourcing our foreign policy to the United Nations giving Vladimir Putin veto power over our efforts to try and deal with this issue.

On a rather somber note, one month ago tonight, on the anniversary of 9/11, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi.

RYAN: We're sending fewer people out in all of these hotspots to do the same job that they were supposed to do a month ago.

Paul Ryan: 'Mitt Romney's a Car Guy' Watch Video Biden Says Americans Are Looking for Even Shot Watch Video Ryan Says Obama Had His Chance Watch Video And talk about credibility?

My friend recently in a speech in Washington said "30 percent of the American people are takers."

We've decimated Al Qaida central.

Let's have a status of forces agreement to make sure that we secure our gains.

We are working hand and glove with the Turks, with the Jordanians, with the Saudis, and with all the people in the region attempting to identify the people who deserve the help so that when Assad goes -- and he will go -- there will be a legitimate

Governor Romney said that was a tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 troops there.

RYAN: This Benghazi issue would be a tragedy in and of itself, but unfortunately it's indicative of a broader problem.

This is a guy who's repaired our alliances so the rest of the world follows us again.

This is just one more example of how the Russia reset's not working.

We want to extend permanently the middle-class tax cut for -- permanently, from the Bush middle-class tax cut.

But we want to see the 2014 transition be successful, and that means we want to make sure our commanders have what they need to make sure that it is successful so that this does not once again become a launching pad for terrorists.

Let's all calm down a little bit here.

RYAN: Now, you want to ask basically why I'm pro-life?

We'll only train in the -- in the Army bases that exist there.

When -- when we see the kind of equivocation that took place because this administration wanted a precondition policy, so when the Green Revolution started up, they were silent for nine days.

We want -- look, one of my best friends in Janesville, a reservist, is at a forward-operating base in eastern Afghanistan right now.

RYAN: Was it a good idea to spend taxpayer dollars on electric cars in Finland, or on windmills in China?

RYAN: Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth.

We forego about $1.1 trillion in loopholes and deductions.

They're spinning the centrifuges faster.

And I would like to ask you both to tell me what role your religion has played in your own personal views on abortion.

We're told everything's going bad.

It's about getting 12 million jobs, higher take-home pay, getting people out of poverty into the middle class.

RYAN: Was there a litmus test on them?

Both President Obama and Governor Romney have said they will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even if that means military action.

Only because we had strong bipartisan support for these tough sanctions were we able to overrule their objections and put them in spite of the administration.

RYAN: We said here's the framework, let's work together to fill in the details.

Now, I've got to take issue with the Catholic church and religious liberty.

It doesn't even pay for 10 percent of their proposed deficit spending increases.

Now I understand this is a difficult issue, and I respect people who don't agree with me on this, but the policy of a Romney administration will be to oppose abortions with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.

But the bottom line here is I'd ask that hero you referenced to take a look at whether or not Governor Romney or President Obama has the conviction to help lift up the middle class, restore them to where they were before this great recession hit an

Let's recall that they disavowed their own statement that they had put out earlier in the day in Cairo.

They're stepping up their terrorist attacks.

Choose your plan, and then Medicare subsidizes your premiums, not as much for the wealthy people, more coverage for middle-income people, and total out-of-pocket coverage for the poor and the sick.

AARP endorsed what we did.

Governor Romney said we should not set a date, number one.

They're more brazen in their attacks, and are allies are less willing to...

RADDATZ: I want to move on here to Medicare and entitlements.

He's from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

BIDEN: Now, there's not enough -- the reason why the AEI study, the American Enterprise Institute study, the Tax Policy Center study, the reason they all say it's going -- taxes go up on the middle class, the only way you can find $5 trillion in lo

The bottom line here is that all the studies show that if we went with Social Security proposal made by Mitt Romney, if you're 40 -- in your 40s now you will pay $2,600 a year -- you get $2,600 a year less in Social Security.

They're infringing upon our first freedom, the freedom of religion, by infringing on Catholic charities, Catholic churches, Catholic hospitals.

The economy was in free fall.

More than 50 of them were killed this year by the very Afghan forces we are trying to help.

And I'm going to move back and forth between foreign and domestic, since that is what a vice president or president would have to do.

When I went to the Ahgandah (ph) Valley in Kandahar before the surge, I sat down with a young private in the 82nd from the Monamanee (ph) Indian reservation who would tell me what he did every day, and I was in awe.

The number-one issue here at home is jobs.

Both President Obama and Governor Romney have said they will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even if that means military action.

They're happy to let us continue to do the job; international security forces to do the job.

When I went to the Ahgandah (ph) Valley in Kandahar before the surge, I sat down with a young private in the 82nd from the Monamanee (ph) Indian reservation who would tell me what he did every day, and I was in awe.

BIDEN: That's -- that's why we should send Americans in to do the job, instead of the -- you'd rather Americans be going in doing the job instead of the trainees?

They're more brazen in their attacks, and are allies are less willing to...

You know, I think about 10 1/2 years ago, my wife Janna and I went to Mercy Hospital in Janesville where I was born, for our seven week ultrasound for our firstborn child, and we saw that heartbeat.

I know he had no commitment to the automobile industry.

When it came to Osama bin Laden, the president the first day in office, I was sitting with him in the Oval Office, he called in the CIA and signed an order saying, "My highest priority is to get bin Laden."

Both President Obama and Governor Romney have said they will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even if that means military action.

RYAN: ... what we don't want to do is give our allies reason to trust us less and our enemies more -- we don't want to embolden our enemies to hold and wait out for us and then take over...

We could have more easily identified the free Syrian army, the freedom fighters, working with our allies, the Turks, the Qataris, the Saudis, had we had a better plan in place to begin with working through our allies.

BIDEN: Not mathematically possible.

Last week, former Defense Secretary Bob Gates said a strike on Iran's facilities would not work and, quote, "could prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations."

RADDATZ: I want to move on here to Medicare and entitlements.

What we should not be doing is saying to the Egyptian people, while Mubarak is cracking down on them, that he's a good guy and, in the next week, say he ought to go.

That's not a political thing, that's a math thing.

When it came to Osama bin Laden, the president the first day in office, I was sitting with him in the Oval Office, he called in the CIA and signed an order saying, "My highest priority is to get bin Laden."

When my friend talks about fissile material, they have to take this highly enriched uranium, get it from 20 percent up, then they have to be able to have something to put it in.

And we should not be imposing these devastating defense cuts, because what that does when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we're cutting down on defense, it makes us more weak.

Mitt Romney is uniquely qualified to fix these problems.

You're in a country that is heavily populated in the midst of the most dangerous area in the world.

They're infringing upon our first freedom, the freedom of religion, by infringing on Catholic charities, Catholic churches, Catholic hospitals.

You see, if you reform these programs for my generation, people 54 and below, you can guarantee they don't change for people in or near retirement, which is precisely what Mitt Romney and I are proposing.

It seep into a regional war.

We are not going to jeopardize this program, but we have to save it...

This is becoming more troubling by the day.

Let me tell you who some of those other small businesses are: hedge funds that make $600 million, $800 million a year.

It is five times as large geographically, it has one-fifth the population, that is Libya, one-fifth the population, five times as large geographically.

You can buy back in if you want with this voucher, which will not keep pace -- will not keep pace with health care costs.

It's a plan I put together with a prominent Democrat senator from Oregon.

That's caring for the national security of the country.