I am amazed that the behavior of most Republican end some Democratic lawmakers is a puzzle. Here is the cause:

The level of fear of getting poor is proportional to one’s annual income. The higher the income the greater the fear.

Yes, troublesum, there are real indications that Obama&Co; may gut the most successful federal program ever Social Security. Medicare, however, ought to be replaced by a one-payer full medical insurance system for all Americans. It is a story as old as governance by the powerful. Make the powerful richer or, in economically hard times, spare them and let the working stiffs pay for that largess. No “change” here. Classical “business as usual”. Louis XIV is nodding from his grave. His wife is advising from her grave: “let them eat cakes”.
By-the-way, gutting SS, bad as that will be, will have the side-effect that it will become more difficult for Presidents to wage wars. Today, every SS-tax transfer collected by employers to Washington is immediately “borrowed” to wage wars in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan. Every worker who pays SS tax supports these wars without knowing it.

In an interview with the Washington Post Obama said that entitlements, meaning social security and medicare(they’re the only ones left), would have to be cut, and a couple of days ago Biden said the $700 billion for wall street was only the beginning.  So the sky is the limit for wall street while the elderly and the disabled will go begging.  I would like to ask the Obama apologists here if this is part of a secret plan to help the poor and the elderly somehow, somewhere, sometime and how many secret plans does Obama have?