Reply #74: Everything Howard Dean says in this message is right, but it doesn't go far enough.

[Matt Shapiro]

I agree that we should not support any member of Congress who votes to support an increase in the Medicare eligibility age. But we should also not support anyone who votes to reduce ANY benefit under Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security (including changing the COLA). The line in the sand should be much deeper and wider. Anyone who attacks these vital safety net programs should be persona non grata. And that's regardless of whether they also vote to increase taxes on the rich and corporations.

There is no "reasonable" bargain to be struck here. The super rich need to pay their fair share of taxes, and we need to spend much less on the military by ending all the overt and covert wars (including those conducted by "contract"). That's about it for deficit reduction. No safety net program should be cut AT ALL! If anything, we need to increase spending on social needs. We should, for example, restore the "Making Work Pay" credit program, which is more economically stimulative than the payroll tax holiday (that undermines the political viability of Social Security). We need to directly create jobs in education and infrastructure repair without any tax cut trade off.

The line in the sand should not be on a single issue, no matter how important that single issue is.