Thanks. That was a thoughful response, unlike so much of the name calling that has infected P & R.
I guess i differ on a couple of points. One, I think the problem is a spending problem, not a tax problem. We waste sooooo much money, it is criminal. Republicans want to waste it on defense, democrats on government workers. But any increase in tax revenues just lessens the pressure to cut spending. Obama's insistence on raising the taxes of the upper bracket is just politics, pure and simple. It's not based on anything other than showing his constituents that he's sticking it to the class they have been encouraged to hate.
While I agree with your assessments re SS and medicare, I am not nealry as sanguine as you about medicare being amenable to solution. There are some inefficiencies in the helath care system, but it is already at the breaking point in terms of utilization. Go to any emergency room and see how long it takes. It's even hard to get an admittance to a hospital. Nursing himes, same deal. Full.
More and more physicians are declining to take new medicare patients, and no one should be surprised why. A primary care doc gets next to nothing for a medicare patient, except a file full of paperwork. Obama's solution, to pretend to take $700 bill from medicare by cutting back what providers receive, is a joke. If it comes to pass, we will begin to see critical shortages.
Of course, I believe his ultimate plan is to wreck the health care system to justify a fully socialized system.