Levin was making the point we have elections, representatives, town halls, letters/calls/emails/faxes/tweets/facebook posts, and asking why we need the extra process Newt is talking about. This was a softball!
Newt wants to more directly involve the American People in large entitlement reforms. That's fine: it's the only way the press is forced to provide "equal time" rather than adopt the Democrat's demagoguery wholesale or giving that party cover to oppose any necessary reform. I can't believe Newt couldn't articulate a cohesive answer.
Newt is trying his hand at a bit of centrist populism: I'll involve you, not just tell you how it's going to be like Obama or (stereotyped) extremist Republicans. Newt obviously wants to sound inclusive and non-threatening to "independents" and disaffected Democrats but in doing so he sounds indecisive and confused.
Clearly Newt sees passing the Ryan plan outright as "right-wing social engineering" because it'd be done by the usual dysfunctional constitutional process of representative government. Again, Newt failed on articulating his message which is to involve more Americans in entitlement reform, not just the lobbyists and partisan extremists in Washington.
The problem is Newt sounded weak, like a mushy parliamentarian with no defined message and no alternative plan. It was embarrassing.
He offered no time table (now, campaign cycle, post-election), no list of participants (congress, president, candidates, who?). This was a SOFTBALL.
He failed to articulate his case. I ended up almost feeling bad for him!
Pared to the bone, he's not necessarily wrong on process, but he's inept in articulating why and THAT is not presidential material.
They really have to be dealt with separately else you run the risk of categorizing a number of formerly private, but now government controlled pension plans as welfare, and that's just a start.
The fact folks believe they paid FICA for some reason is another hurdle for reformers ~ to date an unsurmountable hurdle. Medicare carries some of that burden as well.
You'll notice the old tax cheat Geithner turned first to ripping off the federal employee pension system to cover his cost overruns. The law allows that and it's been done before ~ and by Republicans ~ but on the drawdown side, when those federal employees get their pensions, most of them would need to live to 200 years of age before they needed to tap into anything but their own deposits and the interest they earned over time.
No, retired government employees don't live that long, so they never get those agency matching funds also required by law.
Geithner knows this, but he has the natural inclinations of a street thug so he just steals it.
The Obamista Regime has no intention of reducing the deficit, nor of paying back the borrowings from the federal employee retirement funds ~ and a lot of you sit around laughing sayng "See, let those federal employees suffer" but what are you going to do when this same Geithner comes around and tells you "Well,we tapped out the federales so you are next" and he begins looting private pensions, and 401 (k) plans, and IRA accounts, and savings accounts, and even checking accounts?
That's what's coming.
Lots of our money has already been shipped overseas to Geithner's buddies in European banks. It isn't coming back. He has no intention of paying for it.