Jon Stewart is right. I’m surprised I missed this. President Obama took a pot-shot at Paul Ryan during his inaugural speech earlier this week.
From Obama’s inaugural speech on Monday:
The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
Now, remember what Paul Ryan said during the campaign, and has said for years:
“Right now about 60 percent of the American people get more benefits in dollar value from the federal government than they pay back in taxes,” Ryan said. “So we’re going to a majority of takers versus makers in America and that will be tough to come back from that. They’ll be dependent on the government for their livelihoods [rather] than themselves.”
Ryan went on to suggest that “takers” weren’t real Americans:
“The good news is, most people in America don’t want to be a ‘taker,’ they want to be American, they want to be a ‘maker’.”
This was also a swipe at Mitt Romney’s 47% comments, as well as Romney’s bizarre comments after the election about Obama having won because he gave people “gifts.”
So kudos to the President on yet another reason to love his inaugural speech. I’m becoming increasingly intrigued with where the President is heading into his second term. The old Obama wouldn’t have taken a swipe at anyone in such an important speech.
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