TO, am all for cutting SS, a flawed system already bankrupted and going to get worse as people live longer and the baby boomers start receiving money instead of depositing money into the system. the numbers above are for mean-tested welfare, not SS, or medicare. am for cutting govt back to where we balance the budget, let the chips fall where they may, i will be hurt, everyone would be hurt but we have to do it, cannot keep going at this pace. we, as a nation, cannot afford to put obamacare into our budget, just adds to our already out of control deficit and it has not even hit full force yet but when it does and the bureaucrats begin rationing my, your healthcare, we will all say, WTF? all of us boomers have been planning this for decades, yes, we have always wanted to bankrupt the country, always our long term goal. it is not us, it is the programs put into place by our representatives that are causing the problem, don't blame us for being born at a certain time. am all for eliminating all the govt programs if you feel that is the way, let's do it. we must get more people pulling the wagon and fewer people on the wagon, boomers, slackers, those who really need help, etc. the 47% deal, the war on women deal, the not showing all of his taxes deal is all politics, no substance at all. we need a leader who is more interested, really interested, in getting people back to work not adding to the govt rolls, who loves this country, not apologizing for it, who understands economics, what runs our engine and makes us roll. whoever wins this election is not going to solve our financial problems, too late, it will take us going over the cliff for our elected officials to actually take action to start solving it and continuing to raise the debt ceiling is not the answer, just keeps kicking the can down the road. i would applaud obama if he cut or eliminated SS or any other govt program, that would be the start to getting us healthy again but unfortunately, he is for adding more programs, adding more takers to old and new programs, he is going the opposite way of where we need, have to be going. i don't care which party or individual starts the process of dismantling our bloated govt but will vote for whomever says that is what they want to do and will work for it, if it is obama, he has my vote, if romney, has my vote, not a party guy, both parties have led us to this time in our history. again, it is not just the social/welfare programs i rail against, it is ALL of them, we need to cut all of them. my only thoughts on my post was to let T know that just the means-tested welfare is indeed larger than the defense budget, not counting SS or medicare since he had said several times that defense was the biggest part of the budget. believe me, am for cutting everything in govt not just social progams and i apologize to you personally for being born when i was, am just an AH who does not care.