Progress?  Perhaps.

You may recall I recently wrote that there are clear signs that genuine reform lies ahead. This week, President Obama may have underscored that point. He spoke openly about reforming Social Security and Medicare by doing more than raising taxes.  Well, if you don’t raise taxes you have to cut the benefits. So this would likely mean the President would go along with cutting benefits.

Is this a ploy? Hard to say. He would like to place himself in the middle, between the left and right. At least for the election, he would. On the left he and we hear Nancy Pelosi boast that she and colleagues fought off attempts to cut benefits. On the right there are those who would totally privatize both programs.

Maybe this attempt by the President to stand between them is election propaganda. Maybe it is more.  At least he is talking about reform. He calls it “changes.”  If Congress eventually does something more drastic, it would be “reform.”

We must have reform of these big benefit programs. The government has promised $46 trillion more in benefits than it will have money for. That’s like you promising to pay off a $10 million mortgage. When you will earn only $2 million over the next 20 years.