TAMPA, Fla. — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told The Daily Caller that President Barack Obama is “not a leader, he wants to follow.”
He also said Democrats are lying about vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal.
TheDC asked Giuliani whether or not GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has focused enough on avoiding the “fiscal cliff” at the start of 2013 when the Bush-era tax cuts expire and automatic spending cuts take effect.
“I think he has. I think in selecting Paul Ryan, that’s exactly what he did. I think he’s basically said this campaign is going to be about how terrible our economy is doing right now. What terrible peril there is, failure of President Obama to address it and then he picks Paul Ryan who is the person who’s been the most courageous in addressing it, even two or three years ago, when nobody had the courage to address it,” said Giuliani.
“Paul Ryan was willing to say to us, if we don’t fix Medicare, it’s going to be gone and this is what annoys me most about the Democrats’ hypocrisy, saying to the people of Florida, the elderly people of Florida, ‘Medicare’s going to be gone.’ Paul Ryan wants to save Medicare. First of all, it’s not going to be changed for anyone 55 or over, that’s a big lie and number two, he wants to fix it for young people like you who aren’t going to Medicare because it’s going to be gone because Obama’s going to bankrupt it.”
Giuliani also said he supports extending the Bush-era tax rates for every income bracket.
“I don’t think we should give this government a single penny more. I think this government has demonstrated it knows how to do one thing and that is waste money,” he said.
“The best thing to do is put it on a diet and say you’re going to have less money and you’re going to have to make some tough choices, that’s why I wouldn’t tax anybody any more. The rich, the poor, the middle class, the in-betweens, no one because I don’t want to give Washington any more money. They’re getting plenty of money, figure out how to use it wisely.”
When asked why he thinks Obama has not done more to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff, Giuliani responded, “because Barack Obama can’t lead, he’s not a leader, he wants to follow.”