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He's a good man, and i'm going to say this on this issue, he's right. but here's the thing, it's very cynical, because the president put it in because republicans asked him to make it part of the deal, and then immediately attack him for it, but i do think if you're going to take a political calculation, you should believe that you're going to be able to sell what is fair, and this is where jonathan and i disagree. this is an unfair strategy. now, means testing the top 25% of income earners, something like that, that strikes people as fair. this was designed, as roosevelt said, insurance again...

Discussion about lowering or putting up the age as to when you're entitled to receive it. >>brian: means testing will not be a part of it. if you don't need social security, you're going to get it. >>steve: the president has been in office over four years. why is he talking about taking a whack at entitlements? he wants to reach across with the republicans. he's going to have dinner with a dozen of them tonight. he wants to appear that he is essentially caving to some of their needs. remember, he also wants to create a bench more tax revenue -- create a bunch more tax revenue which the republi...

Martha: right now, right? they would cut them for sure. >> right now immediately. eye not prospective, it's immediately. you know, the thing that is important to remember is in the last four years the average benefit per year has been 1.3%, and in two of those years there was zero cola. anybody, any politician who thinks that is too generous will have a very rude awakening november of next year. martha: i hear what you're saying. let me ask you this. what was wrong with the paul ryan plan which would have put these changes only to people who were under the age of 55? anybody who is receiving b...

In fact i think we were this close to an agreement in december and the president is staying right where he was. that shows he is really come more than half way and is willing to keep that offer on the table, even though it is not his ideal proposal. but the idea is to find that compromise where everybody gives a little. but we can move our country forward and help create jobs and get this recovery moving. i think it's -- i think it is the case that the president has met, when i say met their demand, more than half way. one of the things the speaker thought was most important was to accept thei...

Budget. start with the budget. do you think that the president's framework that he announced, including change cpi, a gradual way to cut social security benefits, is a good-faith effort on his part? do you think he can actually win some new revenues as a budget deal by doing it? >> there are nuggets of his budget that i think are optimistic. it's overall a bad plan for the economy, but when you look at cpi, we're beginning to set the stage for the grand bargain. change cpi. harmonize, adjust medicare with social security. means testing for both programs. in return flatten the tax code, generat...