The problem with "social liberal economically conservative".

[Sloumeau]

12. You wrote:

Both Biden and Bloomberg have advocated Social Security cuts more than just once.

Yes, they have. This is because we are still living under the Reagan tax cuts. Also, after Reagan, we had the G.W. Bush tax cuts after he took office.

It wasn't just the Reagan incident with Biden. And by the way, Biden voted for Welfare Reform in the 90s. He also voted for the Balanced Budget Amendment.

Since Reagan cut taxes, they have never risen back to pre Reagan levels. We have been in a low tax situation ever since Reagan cut the taxes in the first place. As for Welfare reform, I explained that. Reagan's tax cuts were still mostly in effect in the 90s. Clinton raising the highest tax bracket from 36% to 39% did not raise them as high as they were before. Because of this, in order to balance the budget after all of those tax cuts, welfare reform was undertaken. Also, yes, he voted for the Balanced Budget Amendment because he was trying to balance the budget. Letting the debt rise just means less money for programs in the long run because the government is paying more and more in interest rates.

The Tim Russert interview where he responded "absolutely" to "Would you consider looking at those programs, age of eligibility, cost of living, put it all on the table" was in 2007.
Biden supported the Social Security cuts that the Obama administration proposed, and that was in 2013.

Politicians say "yes" to "would you consider" questions all of the time. It makes them appear open-minded about things. That does not mean that they will actually do the thing that people are asking them about, or even that they want to do that thing that people are asking about.