[Jim Scott]

Krauthammer has a point. Entitlements must be cut and the Democrats have lulled many Americans into either receiving them or thinking that they are some sort of constitutional right as an American. Republicans cannot seriously attempt to lower the national debt without cutting entitlements, and the Democrats know it. Of course there are other budget items that can be cut but as Krauthammer stated, entitlements are crucial and this is the Democrats ace in the hole. The next move will be up to the Republicans and I'm not as optimistic as I would like to be regarding the outcome.

[BobP]

The next move will be up to the Republicans and I'm not as optimistic as I would like to be regarding the outcome.

--------------------------

The next six weeks are going to be momentus for our nation. We need an immediate and guaranteed cut of $500 billion or more in FY '12.

Guess what we're going to get from either party's crooks and good ol' boys Senate club?

When Republicans Say Bipartisanship, They Mean Surrender

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says ''the best advise I can give you John is to ignore any symptoms and also ignore the concerns from taxpayers that will arise after taking your blue pill medicaton. Your friendly, progressive DNC is the medication expert and is there to help you... steer for the cliff!'' /sarc

[Tolsti2]

If you go on DU you’ll see that a lot of people think that if you cut defense you’ll stop the deficit. It’s a tiny portion of the spending, but they really believe it. Also, they believe if you increase the rest of the spending the deficit will disappear. There’s a lot of people that think that way.

[Longbow1969]

Krauthammer has a point. Entitlements must be cut and the Democrats have lulled many Americans into either receiving them or thinking that they are some sort of constitutional right as an American. Republicans cannot seriously attempt to lower the national debt without cutting entitlements, and the Democrats know it. Of course there are other budget items that can be cut but as Krauthammer stated, entitlements are crucial and this is the Democrats ace in the hole. The next move will be up to the Republicans and I'm not as optimistic as I would like to be regarding the outcome.

This is good analysis and I agree with you. Unfortunately, the reason for such little optimism isn't Republican party weakness, it's because what passes for the American public these days is hopelessly wedded to the social welfare state and is still almost completely unwillingly to curtail or even reform entitlements.

When the Republican party, even many otherwise good conservatives, punt on entitlement reform over and over it is simply because for the most part the public does not accept it. There's just no way around it. Even many conservative seasoned citizens recoil at the Ryan plan, heck you even see the "I paid into it and deserve my entitlements" attitude right here from time to time.

What we have are entitlement programs that are headed for complete insolvency and an American public that doesn't want to believe that is true - at least in their lifetimes. Socialism is a drug worse than heroin, and breaking that addiction usually isn't possible till the patient completely crashes. The Democratic party will be happy to lie to the people in order to remain in power till the bitter end. In their minds, when the whole house of cards falls they want to be in power to pick up the pieces. It's all about power for the left and they will do anything to keep it.