>> first of all, everybody has openly said, everyone that is in congress that is in leadership and is working on any construct of reduction in spending, that social security and medicare would not be cut in any way that affected anyone who is currently receiving benefits or even near term. i certainly have said that myself and on cnn. this isn't even part of the debate. this is part of political jockeying the administration is doing on this issue because they don't want to recognize they could have done this. >> hold on. they're saying they're not going to negotiate. it's the republicans who are saying they won't lift it until spending cuts are made. >> they wouldn't have had to negotiate with anybody if they did this three weeks ago. they absolutely waited to not get this done so they could tee it up to the republican house knowing the debate is going to be on spending. now that they're in that debate and it's one the american public wants to have happen. you can go on any street in america and say what is the cause of inflation and they're