Question 5

Internet: Entitlements - TB adds - will you establish a date certain for action?

BO: We will do it, but not in the first two years, but in my first term. We can't understand Medicare and SS without understanding tax policy. I want to provide a tax cut to 95% of Americans (fat chance - as you can't cut from zero). JM wants to give a $300B tax cut, $200B to the largest corporations. Back to the CEO and the $700K tax break. Reverse policies of last 8 years that got us in this mess, then we can address entitlements.

JM: "I'll answer the question" - as BO didn't. SS isn't that tough - we know the problems and how to get it done. Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did it, and I reach across the aisle. He never does. Medicare is tougher - put the smartest people in America on a commission, develop proposals, up or down vote - no Congressional taffy pull. Rhetoric versus record: BO has voted 94 times to raise taxes or not cut them. He ran for Senate in Illinois saying he would cut taxes, but never proposed to do that.