Justin's Political Corner

In picking Paul Ryan as his running mate, the Romney campaign argues, Mitt Romney has shown he is serious about tackling one of the most serious problems facing America today: the deficit. After all, Ryan has built his reputation around a budget which cuts government spending by a whopping $5 trillion more than President Obama’s plan.

But the Obama campaign is already laying out their case that the Budget Committee chairman doesn’t quite have the deficit-cutting bona fides he claims.

“What Paul Ryan brings to the table is deficit-cutting credibility,” Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney adviser, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Choosing Ryan “indicates Mitt Romney is serious about ending the jobs crisis in this nation and also the fiscal crisis.”

But the Obama campaign isn’t ceding any ground to Ryan on the issue. As the campaign was quick to point out on Sunday, Ryan, who has served in Congress since January 1999, voted for a slew of Republican-sponsored legislation during the Bush administration that added trillions of dollars to the national debt.

“[T]his was a guy who rubber stamped every aspect of the Bush economic policy, including not paying for two wars, a Medicare prescription plan, two big tax cuts,” Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And now he wants trillions of dollars of more budget busting tax cuts skewed to the wealthy. He really isn’t in a strong position to talk about this problem.”

h/t: Pema Levy at TPM