Obama is a joke, and always has been. All he can do is talk. I didn't vote for him, but I hoped that he could deliver on just a portion of what he promised. You see how that has gone. The funny thing is that he has a good chance to win again, because the Republicans have no one worth crap to run against him. People wondered how George W. Bush got two terms. Well, now you see.

Hopefully the Republican will fix this, as it wasn't them that voted time after time to increase spending, it wasn't them who refuse to increase taxes on the rich, it wasn't them that started keeps bailing out wall street and ignoring the middle class. The Republican are the people's party.

Bush started a lot of polices that Obama could have stopped cold.  And campaigned on stopping them.  It's year 3 and not only has he not stopped any of them, he's personally endorsed the expansion of practically all of them.

I personally don't give a damn if an R or a D started a failed program or continued a failed program.  What I care about is a person being man or woman enough to own up to their campaign promises and doing what is necessary to ending a failed program.  Better still, they deal with the debt issue.  So far, both sides have dealt with the debt issue with the grace and intelligence of a 1st grade class room crying about who ate all the chalk. 

You don't fix a broken arm with bandaides but worse is that all the plans I've seen put forth by all leadership on both sides is more akin to salt in the wounds...not even bandaides, much actual splints or a cast.

This blame R, blame D crap is why we can't get shit done.  Nobody but a minor few in Congress has the balls to admit the problem and provide real solutions instead of worrying about how many seats in Congress their party will have in the next election.  Pansy asses that earn $174k per year plus bonuses and a medical plan we'll never see and a retirement plan we'll never get and they want to act like children instead of the adults we elected.

And here we are as concerened Americans perpetuating their shoolyard fight.  Just what they hope we do.  Shame on us.

God help us all....and I'm a damn agnostic.

I will answer Viper1 and mrstickball.

1st off Viper1, what makes you think a new President can just walk in and unilaterally stop the 2 wars without congressional approval. What makes you think he could easily kill the Bush tax cuts? What makes you think he could just cancel Medicare Part D? This isnt how the US Govt works.

Now speaking of Medicare Part D which by the way was enacted by Bush mrstickball and is the major reason the govt lost revenue on Medicare. Since Medicare Part D was unfunded and a huge boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Who led the charge for Medicare Part D? Dick Armey who then resigned and went to work for the you guessed it pharmaceutical industry as a highly paid lobbyist and found 1 of the 2 major groups supporting Tea Party initiatives (Freedomworks). Medicare is the most efficient health program we have. If anything we should increase its usage and yes that would cause a tax increase, but why is a tax increase bad for Medicare, but huge premium increases on private insurance OK.

See I am one of those upper 2% that would get hit by eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the rich. I have started companies and supplied health insurance for employees. I have been hit with 20% premium increases YoY from Health Insurance companies. I have been told by Health Insurance companies that if you want to offer plans from multiple companies there will be a 5% premium on the plans. I have competed against companies overseas where those companies don't have to provide insurance to employees to be competitive because it is supplied by the govt. So not only is Health Insurance more expensive than Medicare it also makes it harder for US companies to compete.

As for Medicare and Social Security. They both have a surplus. This means that the Medicare and FICA taxes everyone who works pays have built up a nest egg if you will. Problem is that the other spending (primarily defense) has used those surplus's and the Medicare and Social Security trust funds have IoUs rather than cash. Social Security trust fund has a surplus that should last 25 years. Medicare about 12 years. Social Security can easily be fixed. Back during Reagan years the fix put in place was to fund Social Security with 90% of payroll earnings (not all income because the capital gains that some of us like myself are only taxed at 15%). Well do the inequality of how wages have changed over the years the annual adjustment to the Social Security cap has adjusted to COLA. Thing is most works wages havent increased as much as COLA and the high income earners have had wages skyrocket. Those wages are already above the Social Security cap. Adjust the cap to capture 90% again and Social Security fixed. Currently 84% of wages are taxed.

Like I said earlier Medicare should be expanded and offered as a choice for people to buy into. The premium would be more than what the tax we pay, but less than private health insurance. Not to mention it takes an act of congress to raise Medicare taxes, where as private insurance it is a guy with a 7 figure salary and benefits, corner office, private bathroom with gold fixtures, couple of yachts, a bentley (or 2) and a villa (or 2) that raises health insurance premiums.

America isn't perfect when it comes to equality between the races....(No country is, and no country really could be without decades of work with full understandance of a majority of people.) buuuuut I'd put it ahead of europe any day of the week.

Yeah, that's why 1/4th of people who currently disporve of the Obama presidency are liberals.

He's basically just been George Bush 3 with less consistant rule.

Funny how power suddenly makes you like all those executive invasion of privacy powers.

So, are you bragging that Obama has only increased the debt by 28% the level Bush did in 25% of the time it took Bush to? That Obama is not to blame because he had a nearly unstoppable majority in the senate and house and has maintained the same failed policies as Bush meanint that the debt level will increase more over Obama's first term than it did over Bush's two terms?

Sure, if you never want to have a balanced budget again.

As you said, Social Security and Medicare both run surpluses, but the surplus decreases every year. Again, as you said, within a few decades, those surpluses will be gone.

Now, cutting Social Security is highly irresponsible, because it is funded by contributions, not even technically by taxation. You are essentially taking money away from everyone in the country by a method other than taxation.

Cutting Medicare is different. Medicare is funded by Payroll Tax. Who says Payroll Tax should only go towards Medicare? I see no reason why it shouldn't subsidise the rest of government spending, because only $950 billion in income tax has to fund the other $2 trillion odd of government spending.

Either payroll or income tax needs to be raised, and if Medicare spending is increased alongside that, the government will be completely broke. Universal healthcare is expensive, and would be even more expensive if not for the fact that quite a few people will still go for private insurance. If you make Medicare optional, nobody wealthy will pay for it (they will get much better care with private insurance) and the poor cannot possibly afford to fund the entire thing.

The best ways to reduce the deficit are to cut defence spending and get rid of Bush's tax cuts, but Medicare needs to take a cut, too. Something like twice as much is being spent on Medicare now as in 2000.

Forgive me if any of the above is completely wrong. I don't live in the USA, so this is just what I understand of how Medicare and Social Security work.

Part of the reason social security has to be cut is because the federal government has raided social security time and time again, and the money that is needed to maintain social security is simply IOUs from a government that cannot afford to pay them.