WASHINGTON WATCH: The president's budget and Romney's critique

Mitt Romney, the front-runner for Republican presidential nominee, is harsh critique of President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget proposal. Romney said it worried him that Obama's budget had nothing to say about making Social Security and Medicare solvent and permanent.

Romney went on to say that when he is president he will save Social Security and Medicare and make sure that they do not kill future generations with excessive taxes. However, he did not put forth a plan or explanation laying out how he was going to accomplish this. Democrats replied to this criticism saying that it would be foolish for the president to outline a sweeping plan in an election year knowing full well that Republicans would not negotiate seriously about how to deal with them.

While Romney has made protecting Social Security and Medicare a good part of his stump speeches, it has been noted by most reporters that recently those issues have taken a back seat to a more canned address in which he spends more time talking about his opponents than any issues. But this is typical of a presidential election year and we can expect a lot more of the same. Be sure your TV mute button works.

Regardless, it has been interesting to watch the Republican presidential debates. I'm sure the Obama camp is writing it all down as to the insults that are being hurled back and forth. A lot of research was done to come up with all the accusations and scandal being issued and will surely be utilized by the President's people. Just be glad that Obama doesn't have Democrat opponents or we would be having the same debates I'm sure.

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I see that U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei came to town and addressed the Carson City Chamber of Commerce. Nothing much new except that it was encouraging to hear that he introduced a Yerington Land Conveyance and Development Act which is jointly sponsored by Amodei and U.S. Reps. Shelley Berkley and Joe Heck. This is good to hear and congratulations to all of them. And kudos to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for keeping Reno's postal sorting facility open. This not only saved many jobs, but our mail would have gone to Sacramento and thus delayed our receiving it by five to six days. Nice job. It also was good to see the payroll tax issue receive bipartisan support to continue. We need a lot more of this! Stay tuned.

• Janice Ayres is president of Nevada Senior Corps Association.