Medicare/Social Security Debate

The Democrats love that this is becoming a topic in this campaign. That way they get to stand up and say that they are defending Grandma. They get to say that the Republicans are trying to take away her only source of income and her healthcare. The strange thing this year is that the Republicans are trying to argue that Obama is trying to take it away and they are defending it. This is because Obamacare's budget shifts some money currently spent on Medicare. It's on the hospital side and does nothing to benefits, but somehow the Republicans are trying to use this to argue that Obama is actually scarier for seniors. Not true at all, and it just goes to show, at this point Romney will say absolutely anything to win. Really, he will. But that's really not the point of what I feel like saying. What I really want to note is that medicare and social security actually do need some reform. That the screw the people privatizing that the Republicans want, but reasonable reform. The Republicans are right in one respect. There just isn't enough money to keep making empty promises. Most states including California are in lots of trouble because they buried their heads in the sand about what they could actually pay in pensions. And my guess is left to their own devices, Democrats would walk off that same plank. So I guess, I understand what the Democrats are doing politically. They are clearly more compassionate that the folks who just want to raise everyone's taxes for the great majority of people so the few at the top can get more breaks, but I wish the Democrats could be more honest about it. Yes. We need higher taxes, more revenue, but we also need to make real efforts to control costs.