Page 377 - Third Rail News Today

The one and only chris matthews. we watched the news conference today. chris, hes playing a very delicate game here. hes trying to reassure the markets that he is looking at that deficit reduction commission, looking at entitlements, but not yet, not now. he doesnt want to go first. >> right. well, hes riding an upward curve right now in performance. hes performing well as chief executive, with the polling all showing that the markets doing fine. he doesnt want to upset that with seniors and sta...

Rail, which is social security, the big one. so you cant talk about that when youre running for president, which is insane. its insane. >> do you buy this chess game idea that mark is pushing which is this idea that somehow theyre going to get to it? he will actually get to entit entitlement reform? i dont think hell get to it. >> maybe after hes reelected. >> no, no. he thinks before. later this year is the gamble right here. >> no. i dont buy it. im not buying it. >> i think hes scared. >> eve...

Certainly more focused on the presidents budget but what else is here? they dont call social security, of course, the third rail of politics for nothing, so if they did get into specifics on that today, you know we would be all over them, certainly critics would be all over republicans, and then the store woe change away from their criticism of president obamas budget. >> politics is getting in the way a little bit. tell us whats on the chopping block on the house floor this week. >> reporter: y...

Have gigantic constituencies, called the third rail of american politics. if you want to go there, youll put a place. the president tipped his toe in the water here with his budget. republicans have put both feet in the water in trying to cut back, and its a long hard battle to go here and at end of the day you need more revenue and need basically less spending and youll have to go across the board and change the whole structure of how we tax. >> but james, how does this play out? how do we get ...

Out things that we can afford to do without, we have a responsibility to invest in those areas that will have the biggest impact in our future. >> reporter: on capitol hill a different story, republicans there say the president needs to make deeper cuts in spending. house speaker john boehner sending a letter to the president on sunday urging president obama to support republican efforts. >> we are broke. whats really dangerous is if we continue to do nothing and allow the status quo to stay in ...

Able to preserve those programs into the future. bill: there are a lot of folks down there in washington running for cover on this story. >> well, you know, i -- >> bill: they dont want to touch it. >> i know. bill ill its -- bill: its the so-called third rail, but i tell you, my generation, maybe its there, maybe its not, but nobody is planning on it. >> nobody is planning on it. you have to plan for the future. heres the thing. president bush after his second inaugural, the first thing he said...

A year for seven years. the characterization of democrats is they want to kill old people or kick them out on the street. george bush wanted to take on the third rail, social security. he pushed as hard as he could. he knew were headed for bankruptcy there. was not an appetite. do you think when it when it comes to people standing this will impact them, will they have the appetite for that? >> there was an appetite in the country for social security reform there just wasnt an appetite in congres...

A year for seven years. the characterization of democrats is they want to kill old people or kick them out on the street. george bush wanted to take on the third rail, social security. he pushed as hard as he could. he knew were headed for bankruptcy there. was not an appetite. do you think when it when it comes to people standing this will impact them, will they have the appetite for that? >> there was an appetite in the country for social security reform there just wasnt an appetite in congres...

As you can see, foreign aid leading by far the greatest here with the big blue spike, followed by the environment and mass transit and other areas here as well as defense at the bottom and medicare far, far lower. thats what we would cut according to this poll. heres what costs us. see this red ive thrown in here? you can get a sense. this is where all the costs are. this is where we want to cut. it does not match. that red mountain does not match what im seeing here in absolute orel active term...

Making your payments be indexed to inflation and not wage increases is one idea thats being bandied around. the issue is, weve added the equivalent the size of russias economy when this is the real issue -- social security, medicaid and medicare will chew up 100% of the budget by 2030 if we dont fix it now. we hear from the president ideas like making people in their 401k accounts take on annuity products. thats not the way to do it. instead, the issue is, get on the third rail. dont call it the...