"While Social Security is expected to be unable to pay full benefits by 2036, it is not a major driver of the budget deficit. Republicans want the program reformed now because they fear otherwise that as 2036 approaches massive tax hikes that could stall the economy would be demanded by senior citizens."

Pure propaganda. Republicans today are worried about massive tax hikes in 2036, or 2026? They are worried about a "stalled economy" more than a decade from now, while they are preparing to crash the economy today by not agreeing to extend the debt ceiling?!

Gimme a break! What poppycock. They oppose tax hikes TODAY, and they are a bunch of greedhead scammers who want to impoverish everyone but their own elite wealthy class. They identify with Wall Street which wants to privatize SS.

" The Social Security Administration estimates that a proposal floated by the Obama administration would put 245,000 people into poverty..." Gosh, I sure hope there's a corresponding tax break for the wealthy to make up for this.

"Sanders said. 'The American people expect the president to keep his word.'" Really. Anybody who has given even the most casual observation of Barry's extensive history of promise breaking, would disagree with Sanders on this point. By the way, any potential short fall in Social Security can be eliminated by raising the cap so that the rich pay their fair share.

The wars and all the other Pentagon expenditures (including those we never see a record of and which are sizeable) are what is largely responsible for this situation. To that, one must of course add the fact that the rich have not been taxed as everyone else has since at least the Reagan years. This state of affairs couldn't last indefinitely, and it is now coming to a head. As long as it is not changed, our situation will only get worse. Eventually, the entire economic order in this country will collapse, and, along with it, of course, the social order.

For years, I have been asking Bernie to eliminate the cap on SS taxes. Things are so bad in Vermont that the elderly are being asked to go without necessary medical care and just sign up for Hospice.

I know that Sanders feels the moral outrage. But by now it should be crystal clear that Obama doesn't. That goes for most of the millionaire class of Representatives and Senators who are supposed to represent us. Save your breath Bernie. Let's just be done with Obama and his elitist friends. Asking, begging them to change their stripes just leaves us stammering and angry and feeling impotent and alienated. How much more fulfilling to put our efforts into starting a third party which will elect individuals who will represent us. It won't be easy but it will start with a resolve not to be co-opted by Democrats who say they are on our side. Its wasted effort to expect the Democrats to be anything more than the moral pygmies they have so conclusively shown themselves to be..

Any body know the Vegas odds; pass, no pass of this latest heist? Tony

This is a perfect example of crap that passes for journalism. This side says this, and this side says that, blah blah blah blah blah political bullshit. The article ends with a whopper. " Republicans want the program reformed now because they fear otherwise that as 2036 approaches massive tax hikes that could stall the economy would be demanded by senior citizens." This "journalist" in supposedly reporting on what Republicans assert, embeds an assertion of fact of his own, that is not based on facts at all, but clearly serves the oligarchy's desire to redistribute income upwards (yes Obama is part of that oligarchy, along with the current leadership of the Democratic Party). Here is that embedded assertion by this author as fact "…that as 2036 approaches massive tax hikes that could stall the economy…" Focus on the word "that", and I think you'll see what I mean. This author, from the Hill, is asserting here the dogma of trickle down economics that has been proven to the nth degree, absolute rubbish. But what should I expect from the Hill?

If tax breaks for the wealthy create jobs, than what happened?

How much money have various presidents [especially including Slick Willie] borrowed [stolen] from the Social Security fund and never repaid? According to this article, and Sanders, there will be 250,000 of us forced into poverty. Guess what? 250,000 votes don't mean jack shit, especially when we are poor enough that we cannot contribute to the election campaigns. I am building a sailboat to live in [which is costing me all of my savings - approx 10,000 dollars] and I am shopping for automatic weapons. I am a vet. I didn't put my life on the line for my country to have it turn into this corporate/fascist state.

Don't blame me, I voted for change (Nader).

I have no way of knowing what is in Sander's head and heart, so, I'll not pass judgment towards him, but even assuming his heart is sound and his head full of conviction, at best he is insignificant.

Most of what Obama has done is impoverish American workers, he bailed out and has protected a fraudulent and corrupt financial system leaving the vast proportion of the population in dire straits with a 'jobless recovery' whereby the only ones who 'recovered' were people who ruined the economy to begin with. I expect a currency crisis. The politicos in DC are doing more trade agreements which have only been damaging to the workers in the US.... definition of insanity again repeated.

My idea to get the country out of this dilemma: Get Harry Reid to sponsor a non-binding resolution putting the Senate on record as saying they WOULD NOT vote for impeachment if Obama simply raises the debt limit by executive order. That might prompt Obama to do this under the 14th amendment if he knows that the Democratic Senate is behind him 100% (or 60% or whatever). Sure, it would violate the budget ceiling law as it stands now but according to most scholars the law is unconstitutional anyway. By putting impeachment "off the table" maybe Obama would act. This would also give him a HUGE political victory and would ensure reelection in 2012.

Someone needs to ask Bernie if he supports NADER for president. I already know the answer to this one - and I bet most of you out there also know.

"Republicans want the program reformed now because they fear otherwise that as 2036 approaches massive tax hikes that could stall the economy would be demanded by senior citizens." Stall the economy? What the hell has the economy been doing for the past 5 years? These people are either totally corrupt fascists or dumb enough to think they're bull$hitting the rest of us. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25570 Don't miss this article!

Mussolini said that his Fascist government would be better described as "the Corporate State." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Look about you and what do you see? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Someday, read a little history!

The End is Near. Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my. Be afraid be very afraid. We are all going to die. Well are you scared yet? Have you had your fear today? Have you read the news today? Don't bother it's all bad. The New World Order, Bankers, Evil Corporations, Nuclear Power, Chem trails, the MIC, CIA, TSA, Earthquakes, Comets, Global Warming, GMO's, Population Explosion, Terrorists Attack, Economic Collapse,The Apocalypse, Bigfoot, Take your choice. What's your Fear de jour, you want fries with that? Let's start with the Apocalypse. What's to worry about? Are you worried you will die before it happens, miss out on the big show? How about Terrorism? You have have a greater chance of being killed a shark or a dog, then a shoe bomb. Tens of thousands of people die in auto accidents every year. Are you scared to drive your car? FDR said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. It would seem that the mass media has two products to offer, insipid mind numbing trivia or fear mongering disinformation. Do you know the story about the boy who cried Wolf? What is the effect of this so called news? Does it inform us and call us into action to solve the many serious problems of today. Or does it terrorize the public into a coma like state of inaction with an ever increasing electronic scream of horror. Have we become a bunch of fear junkies waiting for our next electronic fix? I don't know about you but in the words of Huey Lewis I Want a New Drug. Peace.

Obama is the Kerensky of capitalism, keeping up the war against the working people that's been maintained by every administration since the coronation of Kaiser Reagan. No one, of course, would be appointed by the ruling class to pretend to be the chief executive unless he were willing to work as overseer of the enslaved.

"I can hire one half of the working-class to kill the other half." -- Jay Gould, Gilded Age railroad tycoon and land speculator

I hope more and more of you have figured out that since Social Security is not funded by income taxes on the rich or super-rich, but by payroll taxes on working-class Americans that there IS no Social Security budgetary crises. The Social Security trustees have said that if nothing it done it will pay out 100% of its benefits until 2036 and 80% of its benefits for decades after that.

The only reason contemporary Democrats are siding with Republicans and Tea Partiers to openly and needlessly attack Social Security is that they are deliberately helping them (and their shared plutocratic bankrollers) to unleash more dangerous and extremist neo-liberal policies (like "free trade," deregulation of banks, de-taxing the rich even during wartime, legalized usury, corporate collectivization of agriculture, hampering labor unions' ability to organize and cheering the stripping of collective bargaining rights, etc.) that they KNOW will destroy the ability of this country to create enough jobs of ANY kind, let alone enough jobs that will allow Americans to decently support a family--now and for decades to come if we let them have their treacherous bipartisan way.

They WANT to destroy job creation in order to destroy the ability of younger generations of American workers (who are increasingly unemployed or under-employed) to pay into payroll taxes to support Social Security.

This is because our ruling plutocrats want to eliminate the last remnant of a middle-class that, in their view, grew too large, too affluent and well-benefited and too politically powerful so that it dared participate in our former democratic republic and thereby interfered with their Gilded Age and Roaring Twenties era anti-democratic, often monopolistic control over politics, the economy and all three branches of government and their sacred corporate bottom lines that, sans an informed middle-class to effectively oppose them, trample on our education system, domestic job growth, environment, health care, food and drug safety, transportation systems and nearly every other aspect of our lives.

Eliminating the historically unprecedented and fiscally insane Bush II wartime tax cuts for the super-rich ALONE would solve the current budget crises sweeping the States and have enough left over to extend the Social Security 100% benefit payout until 2086. Cutting Pentagon spending and ceasing "wars of choice" not justified by evidence of clear and present danger to U.S. national security would save $TRILLIONS of dollars over ten years. The elimination of agricultural subsidies to giant globalized agri-businesses (for whom they were never originally intended) and celebrity farmers who use their "farms" as a tax dodge would likewise save $TRILLIONS.

A one cent per $4 dollars transaction tax on Wall Street speculation similar to what the U.S. had 50 years ago and the EU still has would simultaneously decrease market volatility, discourage rampant short-term speculation in dubious derivatives and high-speed computerized trading by "too big to fail" Wall Street players, and generate huge revenues very quickly that would come from the class that MOST needs to contribute back to the society who MADE them (or the plutocrats they inherited from) in the first place. All of these cuts are things that a majority of the public approves of in poll after poll.

The delusional "deficit hawk" idiocy the Democrats are aiding and abetting for the Republicans and Tea Partiers is just another failed tri-partisan wart on the fairytale mythology of Ayn Rand devotee Milton Friedman's economic neo-liberalism that is driving America off a cliff with the stupid and/or eager participation of over 200 million ignorant, brainwashed Americans.

Looks like I'll always vote against the Democrats and Republicans too. No Koch either

Bernie Sanders can shout and threaten all he wishes, that doesn't change the fact that the political process in Washington is totally blocked. He probably would do more good raising cows and chickens in Vermont than wasting his saliva and brains on the Washington thug politicians.

"The American people expect the president to keep his word." Only an idiot or fool would expect that at this point. Obama's word is not worth the electrons in the teleprompter he's reading it from.