The "people like you" comment is comical.  Point to where I "assumed" anything much less projected the future of either the CEO or the non-CEO payee of SS contributions relative to their ultimate personal financial retirement situations.

And you didn't answer my question.  I guess only poor seniors need treatment paid for.  If you are young, poor, and sick you are ok to die.

Btw, medicare doesn't pay for everything today.  They only pay for things they deem medically necessary.  I bet a board or person determines those things.  The FDA also makes decisions that could affect your ability to get lifesaving drugs.  Sometimes they withold drugs from the market that could potentially save lives, for various reasons.  Are they a death panel?

Taxes could have been cut in January, February, March . . .

Do you do deals by first giving the other side precisely what they want and then go begging for agreement on the things you want?

You do not of course and you know that is PRECISELY what Obama did in December.

That being said, what polling shows without question is that across political and demographic lines, "the population" does not want changes to the social safety net programs that will affect their present or future benefits.  

As Warren pointed out, raising revenue takes money out of the economy, and so do spending cuts; what needs to be happening now is spending targeted to programs and initiatives that will create jobs - infrastructure projects create jobs up and down the employment spectrum, from engineers and programmers and supervisors to the person who holds up the reversible sign that directs traffic flow around a construction site.  Those people, now employed, (1) pay taxes (revenue increase), (2) pay into SS/MEdicare (build up the trust fund), (3) spend their money in the community - they pay rent, they buy groceries and gas, clothes, etc. and maybe they can occasionally eat out, or take a day trip somewhere fun (demand increases).  More money going into the local economy means maybe those businesses need to do some hiring, too.  

See how that works?  When things have spiraled up and stabilized, the government can reduce its spending on these kinds of programs. Upward spiral, not down, which is where we're headed if this debt ceiling lunacy actually comes to fruition.

 Oh, except where the Koch Brothers buy people.

Folks want decent jobs, lower unemployment, and more security. They also want to see the folks blamed for the problem get punished.

Instead of being made treasury secretary, for example.

The news networks dictate what is important or not. That's why white woman in Florida kills baby (or not) is such a big story, but corporate criminals getting rich from deficit spending to fight wars that benefit nobody, or to prop up yet another failed puppet state-- Iraq or Afghanistan, take your pick, or Yemen or Libya. The people who own these 'news' outlets want their stock dividends every quarter, and the bubble headed bleach blondes earn large salaries for having nice teeth and asking inane  to absolutely stupid questions about non-issues, so the fat cats can keep doing what they do, run everything and hire private security to keep away the riff-raff.

Real people want rich folks to pay their share, and pay back for having gotten more than their fair share for at least the past 11 years.
     Rich means more than 125k per person in the family. If they haven't yet figured out how to incorporate, use tax lawyers or whatever if they are self- employed, tell them to call oculus, jbindc, or any of the host of lawyers here who can write articles of incorporation. Lots of lawyers need work right now, too.

I'm mad as hell, ABG, because after 8 years of Bush/Cheney, with their profligate spending and all-war-all-the-time, and fear, Fear, FEAR... well, with Obama's victory here's how I evaluate the changes...profligate spending and all-war-all-the-time, and fear, Fear, FEAR... combined with tax cuts and unemployment.

I don't care about the argument whether the government needs to cut or not cut, whether the Tea Partiers (who are simply a vocal minority of Koch dupes who can afford television programs and heck, channels) the soulless Wall Streeters whose capitalistic accumulation ideology is the same as the ideology of cancer... to big banksters who are "too big to go to jail..." to delayed decisions, late actions, and a general lack of empathy or even understanding that most of us don't have a few million bucks from writing two pathetic books that were purchased in the same way that Regenery does for Anne Coulter.

I care about people, jobs, and infrastructure, including social infrastructure, such as schools,
Head Start, programs for the elderly, summer jobs programs for teens.

I care about other folks like me, the 'hidden homeless,' who are living with relatives because of 'structural unemployment.' I care about the folks who have so much stress trying to make ends meet their families are coming apart.

Does this administration? Does the president?

Actions speak louder than words, yet his words chill most 'regular' americans.

So things now are worse than under Bush. Obama inherited problems, and then he has made them worse. Hope and change. I sincerely hope for change. I pray for the president every day to change how he thinks, to become a person with real empathy.

Change? Yes I want change. I want a job. want security in my declining years. I want to get health care for the numerous problems I have that are simply getting worse over time.

I fought and bled for the rapacious banksters and war profiteers on Wall Street, for Big Oil and for Big Defense. I then spent nine years teaching our youth about what a wonderful country this is.

And I got RIF'ed in the peace dividend, and RIF'ed in budget issues because big bankers screwed everything up, and wall streeters, speculators, and other parasites did the same.

So. You think YOU'RE angry? Don't make me laugh.

I don't want fame, I never expected to be rich, and I don't mind doing the tough things that have to be done.

But I DO NOT APPRECIATE condescending presidents or plouffy speakers or television heads that make millions of dollars.

I was happy making 50 k. I'm not greedy, unlike many folks.

Now I'm told that the government isn't really hiring at any level, that us older workers may be unemployed for 10 YEARS due to hidden discrimination, and now you and others want change how SS gets calculated, especially in cost of living adjustments, and how Medicare needs to be changed, and how I was too fu@cking stupid to plan my life, so it sucks to be me, but AUSTERITY NOW means more than my life and the lives of 150 million Americans who make less than 60k annually.

We don't count any more. We're not smart enough. We need to gt new skills since we were too frikkin' stupid to go into fields that create nothing and add nothing to the world, like managing hedge funds or trading stocks.

Any cuts to their SS or added costs to their Medicare such as higher deductibles will further erode their measly balance sheets.

I can't think of one issue on which he didn't have some portion of the party angry at him.  DADT, ACA, DOMA, Taxes, etc.