Oklahoma, Missouri, and tell them no more SS, FEMA , food Stamp because the Banksters need their tax cuts.

It going to take DEEP cuts as well as tax increases for just about everybody if we are gonna get this deficit down. If every millionaire in America payed 50% taxes, it wouldn't even cover the interest. We all need to chip in, especially the rich who can spare it of course, but all of us. This has gone on too long. This country needs to pull together and lift ourselves out of the hole.

Defense needs to be streamlined. Entitlements need to be streamlined. There is a lot of bloat, red tape, and bureaucratic micky-mouse-ery in most if not all gov offices (believe me, I've seen it firsthand!) that can be eliminated to make things so much smoother.

Government programs, even the good ones, and like obese octopus -- heavy, bloated, slow, with tentacles going in every direction and getting tangled with the other obese octopus. I know I keep using the word streamlined, but that is truly the key. Government doesn't need to shrink exactly -- it just needs to get efficient. That way they'll cost less, and just as importantly be able to better serve those who need help. Anybody who has ever applied for some form of government assistence can tell you what a excruciating process it is these days.

The last 30 years to give the rich and corporations those tax breaks! How about gutting the grossly over bloated military and spending that money to repair our crumbling infrastructure and putting Americans to work? Streamlining? In this partisan, lobbyist controlled atmosphere? Dream on...

Are you referring to SS also as an entitlement? SS is fully paid for for 30 years and it has nothing to do with the deficit.

I personally feel companies should pay taxes. As we all know, many very large companies are not paying any. I also feel the oil/gas companies should not be subsidized.

As far as raising taxes on the wealthy , why not go back to the tax rate their favorite boy Regan had?

As for entitlements (I wasn't referring to SS), there needs to be a quicker way for people who need the help to get the help. Fewer forms to fill out, fewer bureacrats to argue with, just less crap. All of that stuff costs money. Fraud needs to be addressed as well, somehow.

But anyway, the DoD, with is winding tendrils of contractors, bureacrats, useless hacks, crazy lavish spending, needs to be seriously looked at. The military budget is so huge, and yet our soldiers in warzones are scrounging spare parts for their humvees. That is fucked up, and it begs the question where the hell is the money going?

Cut the bloat, stop subsidizing companies such as oil companies, make corporations pay taxes, streamline programs, raise taxes on everybody who can possibly afford it, even if they are just pitching in a tiny amount, reduce useless spending such as occurs rampantly at the DoD, and yes, even temporarily cut some programs we like until we get the deficit under control (ie cut funding, but with an automatic trigger to start funding again after the deficit is down).

The truth is this deficit is a huge problem, and we are all going to make some sacrifices and feel some pain before its back under control.

those who have STOLEN what they are getting. Capiche?

who seem to be on your side.

of my life. To me, the wording of your post sounds like you would be amenable to cuts to programs people have paid for all their lives. I would heartily suggest prudence on your part in carrying any garish signs suggesting this in most neighborhoods in urban areas. The tigers come at night. But thank you for helping define a segment.

NOTHING to do with what caused the deficit, raising the cap would keep it solvent

No, raising the age of medicare and social security is NOT the answer

Entitlements are insurance policies we have paid into. They have no right to touch those, except to reform

"Deficits don't matter"

ddddddd

Really they don't. It's just another CON. Even if every middle class person and poor person paid 50% of their income in taxes, it wouldn't cover the supposed deficit.

No, WE DON'T ALL NEED TO CHIP IN. WE did NOT share in the wealth. WE did NOT get billions in bailouts. WE do NOT get loans at 0% interest. WE lost our homes. WE got unfair interest rates because of rigging of the libor. WE got our unemployment, school lunches and pay CUT.

Isn't it amazing that when all those banks and financial firms lost all that money, suddenly the money was there to bail them out. But now the money isn't there to cover my Social Security that I paid for TWICE.

I don't buy this utter crap about shared sacrifice. I see billionaires living like kings and I'm suppose sacrifice when I can barely pay for food? I call this pure BS.

Inefficiency in government is NOT the problem, it's corruption in government that's the problem.

There are THREE things that caused this supposed deficit:

The Wars.

The tax give aways to the idle rich.

The 2nd RepubliCON Great Depression.

Take care of those 3 things and you wont have a deficit.

The recovery is still new and fragile. We almost had a depression not too long ago. No matter what you cut, even defense, will hurt some sector. Every kind of cut that there is will be paid for with human capital, whether it be job losses or decreased benefits. We have to come to the table. We have to give (or give a creditable appearance of giving) on something, but we don't really don't have to put deficit reduction ahead of everything else. It's not always really the most important thing.

Our Dem governor Granholm went out to rural Repub Michigan and turned polling around to her, our, favor.

Town hall meetings work.
The M$Media has to cover some of it.

that voted for this man are very smart and do not have to be convinced of anything. That is why we gave him our votes. Now the other side and some Dems want to pick up their talking points, by denigrating us and calling us some radical extreme Leftists. Well I don't take those attacks sitting down. I will fight back at their characterizations. People like Mr Plouffe better understand who he is talking about.

Senator Sanders has the right idea. You got the names of recipients that the Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare for. I can only advise the President but if I was in his position, I would definately know how to take on the Republicans. You are the President of the United States, which means that everyone will have to respect the office. A lot of those people who didn't vote for you, and directly affected by those programs are in those Red States. Go to them or invite some of them in each state to the White house, and lay it on the line what their representatives intend to do with their financial well being. They are fighting for the wealthy and people on Wall Street, not you! Forget aboit the color of one's skin. Go around these people and go into their Districts. They have to give you that respect. These people can see who you are and not some demon, the Republicans paint you out to be.

Our media misinforms and pounds it in. Friends and family get pounding talk points. People start to think that what is true, is what is repeated. It gets repeated without rebuttal.

We need to combat those silly points with a strong rebuttal in the light. Then the polls are with us and the media can only push so far. Just as when Republicans try to steal the vote, they can only steal so much. Beyond that point, we win one.

Let's keep winning.