Obama thinks Social Security needs a cut

Bernie Sanders has been roused to defend Social Security against cuts by President Obama.  Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, recalled that candidate Obama promised Americans in 2008 that he would not cut Social Security, but that was then I guess.

Obama will include it in his budget, to be unveiled April 10. Federal budgets are not like family budgets—they’re nonbinding spending road maps that serve chiefly as statements of political priorities and punching bags for political opponents. Even if Obama’s budget passes both the House and Senate (it won’t) and he signs it into law, it’s unlikely to have much impact on how Congress decides to spend federal dollars.
That’s not to say that it’s a wholly useless bit of theater. Washington has been at war over how best to reduce deficits and rein in the country’s galloping debt. The budget says, in effect, what Obama might be willing to do to achieve those goals, which in turn puts pressure on congressional Democrats to fall in line.
Obama’s support for that longstanding Republican wish-list item is not really a surprise. It’s been a part of each of his “grand bargain” offers to the GOP for cutting the deficit. White House press secretary Jay Carney had said in his April 1 daily briefing that the proposal “remains on the table.”