budget, without saying what they would cut. they got a free ride for two, three months, talking about all these wonder cuts to reduce the debt, without saying what they are. i know a way to cut $2 trillion out of the deficit, end the wars in afghanistan, and iraq, and libya, those wars cost us $157 billion last year, the cost is going up, not down. if you want to say $2 trillion, how about peace? give that a try? social security, a bigger deal, it seems like. harry reed was on meet the press said we didn t have a problem. the president now wants to put it on the table. the president acknowledged it is not part of the deficit problem, that is starting to sink with in americas. social security is not the source of our deficit problems. social security if it is part of
default on our obligations because we can t put politics aside. so i ve been very clear to them. we re going to resolve this and resolver+ this for a2f]qirñjrñr reasonable period we re going to resolve it in a serious way. and my hope is that as a consequence of negotiations that take place today, tomorrow, the next day, and through next weekend, if necessary, that we re going to come one a plan that solves our short-term debt and deficit problems, avoids default, stabilizes the economy and proves to the american people that we can actually get things done in this country and in this town. with that, i m going to take some questions, starting with ben phillips. thank you very much, mr. president. given that you re running out of time, can you explain what is your plan for where these talks
folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to wench elections or obtain short-term political gain when we are in a position to try to do something hard. you know, we haven t always laid the groundwork for it. and i think that, you know, it s going to take some work on his side. but look, it s going to take some work on our side in order to get this thing done. the vast majority of democrats on capitol hill would prefer not to have to do anything. on entitlements. would prefer, frankly, not to have to do anything on some of these debt and deficit problems. and i m sympathetic to their concerns. they re looking after folks who are hurting and vulnerable and there are a lot of folks out there and seniors who are dependent on some of these
you know, but the reason we ve got a problem right now is people keep on avoiding hard things. and i think now is the time for us to go ahead and take it on. rich wall. thank you, mr. president. we keep talking about balance, shared sacrifice. the $4 trillion deal that you re talking about roughly seems to be now at about four to one spending the taxes. we re talking about $800 billion in taxes roughly. that doesn t seem very fair to some democrats. i m wondering if you can clarify why we re at that level. also, if you could clarifier social security position, would any of the money from social security be looking at cpi going towards the deficit? with respect to social security, social security is not the source of our deficit problems. social security, it is part of a package, would be an issue of how do we make sure social
rewarded for saying irresponsible things to winch elections or obtain short term political gain when we actually are in a position to try to do something hard, we haven t always laid the ground work for it. and i think that it s going to take some work on his side, but look, it s also going to take some work on our side in order to get this thing done. i mean, the vast majority of democrats on capitol hill would prefer not to have to do anything on entitlements. would prefer, frankly, not to have to do anything on would prefer not to have to do anything on some of these debt and deficit problems. and i m sympathetic to their concerns. they are looking after folks that are already hurting and vulnerable. and there are a lot of families and seniors who are dependent on some of these programs. what i ve tried to explain to them is number one, if you look at the numbers, medicare in