President Barack Obama - Exclusive interview on NBC's Meet the Press.

[JDPriestly]

7. The people who are now retired PAID THE TAX RATES THAT WILL RETURN IF WE GO OFF THE CLIFF.

That is true of the middle class tax cuts as well as the tax cuts for the rich.

Agreeing to a chained CPI that will result in lower Social Security payments or cutting Medicare in exchange for keeping the low tax rates that were introduced during the Bush administration amounts to cheating seniors.

That is all there is to it.

Our economy flourished when we paid those higher tax rates.

The problem with our economy today is "free" trade which has reduced our wage base and resulted in lower tax revenues.

We need to return to the tax rates of the Clinton era when our economy was roaring if not to the higher ones of earlier times when our economy was doing even better.

The chained CPI is essentially a tax on seniors. It takes income away from the economy to give it to younger people in the form of tax cuts.

That is absurd. It is unfair. It is divisive, and President Obama should talk to someone who is not under the influence of Pete Peterson so that a real economist can explain to him why this is a bad idea.

Going off the cliff will be better for American than cutting Social Security or Medicare.

WHEN WE WERE WORKING, WE MIDDLE CLASS RETIREES PAID THE TAX RATES THAT OBAMA NOW WANTS TO AVOID IMPOSING ON THOSE YOUNG WORKING PEOPLE IN TODAY'S MIDDLE CLASS.

Obama and his friends are counting on the fact that most older people will not understand what a swindle this is.

Shame on you, President Obama.

Again, we survived paying those tax rates. They weren't that bad.