they are having trouble makes ends meet. i m very upset about the president s proposal which is designed to make people like me happy, not this conservative, of changing the indexing of social security. we don t need to balance the budget on the backs of social security. the health care costs largely, the cost of living increases and the way it s calculated now doesn t help seniors keep up with the true cost of living. isn t this going to make it even worse? i do think it s tough and i think peter has a good point. i think it s important to recognize, though, that in the budget, not only do they include this chain cpi measure that you guys are talking about. chain cpi are the way that the adjustments are made to keep up with inflation and it s going to be less now. the inflation rate will grow more slowly so the cost of living adjustment will be less. the thing is, they put a bump up
president obama met with congressional leadership. constructive and productive meeting. a consider constructive meeting. constructive meeting. there must be a real negotiation going on. the president goes big, surprising his base and republicans. the president is considering major changes in social security and medicare. he is willing to put sacred cows on the table. the american people didn t send us here to wage symbolic battles. the white house is winning the politics here. republicans and democrats are not sold yet. house democrats are not supporting any cuts in benefits for social security or medicare. tax hikes are off the table. the democrats in congress will not balance the budget on the backs of social security beneficiaries. we re not for raising taxes. but eventually, republicans are going to have to agree to something. i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. it s insanity. i will reconvene
federal deficit and the overall debt ceiling, and the president arguably is now signalling he might be able to cutting medicare and social security. might be, maybe, open to cuts for two of america s most popular and successful government programs. anybody want to react to that? yes, please. democrats on capitol hill saying they will not vote for any debt ceiling deal that includes cuts to medicare and social security. congressional democrats are not going to support something that seeks to balance the budget on the backs of social security beneficiaries. congressman chris van hollen there. and house minority leader nancy pelosi saying no way, no how, no cuts for medicare and social security. groups like the national nurses united saying they will not endorse anyone who cuts social security. aarp, the formidable older person s lobby, telling the white house they should keep their hands off social security. the progressive change campaign committee asking left-leaning
when it changes, you want to make sure it s put back into social security. so you re basically saying, fine, we may tichker with cola, but what it is, it s going back into i m not saying we re going to tinker with cola, but i am saying when you re dealing with social security, yes, it should extend the life of social security. right now social security is fully solvent until 2037. what we should not be doing is trying to balance the rest are of the budget on the backs of social security beneficiaries. what we could do is work to strengthen social security on its own track and there may be ways to dedicate more revenue to social security as part of any discussion and further strengthen the solvency of social security. all right. what is too much for democrats? it looks like we were discussing a bit of the simple math here. there s complicated math when we talk about colas and social security and then there s simple math, 218. we know there s not 218 republicans for a deal. boe
the white house is winning the politics here. republicans and democrats are not sold yet. house democrats are not supporting any cuts in benefits for social security or medicare. tax hikes are off the table. the democrats in congress will not balance the budget on the backs of social security beneficiaries. we re not for raising taxes. but eventually, republicans are going to have to agree toing? . to something. i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. it s insanity. i will reconvene congressional leaders here on sunday. meeting again on sunday. they are going to come back here sunday. and sunday is also the end of rupert murdoch s best-selling paper. the end of news of the world. closing on sunday after 168 years. all of the things that people have talked about, this is an evil empire. phone hacking scandal. this is disgusting, disgraceful. they are closing the paper in name.