Appearing on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday morning, host David Gregory asked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) how both of their parties will respond should Barack Obama or Mitt Romney win the election in November.
“What’s going to happen at the end of the year is largely going to be determined by who wins in this November election,” Ryan said of the impending budget issues – Bush tax cuts, debt limit and unemployment insurance – that need to be addressed by the end of this year.
Gregory then asked Ryan that if the outcome of these major issues depends on the election, what his party’s response will be should President Obama win.
“Are you saying the election will not change what Republican leaders will do and should do in order to compromise?” Gregory pressed.
“We would like to do tax reform,” Ryan said, largely ducking the question.
Gregory then posed the same question to Sen. Durbin.
“If Gov. Romney wins, do Democratic leaders say ‘you know what, we’re going to have to compromise on this?'”
“Gov. Romney wants to return to same policies as Bush administration,” Durbin hedged, maintaining that Senate Democrats would pursue a bipartisan approach by sticking with Bowles-Simpson principles, the deficit commission set up by President Obama that failed to produce a real solution in 2009.
“It doesn’t sound like the election is going to solve anything that’s going to lead to Washington governing any better,” David Gregory incredulously remarked at a panel following the segment.
Panelist Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, retorted that “the tough reality is that elections are about not solving anything, because when you solve something you go to the voters with pain.”
“So the elections are about winning and then maybe doing something later,” Murphy added.
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