Cenk Uygur: According to Bob Woodward’s book, “The Price of Politics”, President Obama once called himself a “blue dog Democrat”. In fact, according to Woodward, quote, President Obama said,

“I’m a blue dog. I want fiscal restraint and order.”

-President Barack Obama

There is nothing wrong with the second half of that sentence. Everybody wants fiscal restraint and order. The question is, how do you do it?

But the fact that President Obama has called himself a blue dog is news: blue dog Democrats are conservative Democrats; they are not progressive Democrats.

So that’s what I have been telling you all along. Now apparently that’s what President Obama is telling you. So all this thing about, “oh, no, no, he is a progressive; he just has a different way of getting there.” No, by his own admission, he is a blue dog.

Now, Bob Woodward explains further:

“The book show that he doesn’t control [Senator Nancy] Pelosi [former Speaker of the House] or [Senator Harry] Reid {Senate Majority Leader]. They were resistant to cutting any entitlements.”

-Bob Woodward

Author, “The Price of Politics”

CNBC

Now I give you that quote, and Woodward was interviewed by Sam Seder, I give you that because why would Reid and Pelosi have to fight him if they wanted to protect entitlements? That’s because President Obama wants to cut entitlements. That’s why they have to fight him.

Now here is something else that he apparently already proposed in negotiations to the Republicans. Woodward says,

“[They were doing] several little things {talking about the negotiations}, like increasing the Medicare age from 65, up to, eventually, 66 or 67.”

-Bob Woodward

Author, “The Price of Politics”

CNBC

Now that was not a Republican proposal; that was President Obama’s proposal. So there it is. He has already proposed it, he will propose it again to increase the retirement age for Medicare.

So “I can’t believe the Republicans would go after Medicare”, and I can’t also wait to raise the retirement age. Do you know how much money that takes out of your pocket when they raise the retirement age? Two more years. It’s not like, oh, yeah, yeah, I get the same amount of money but two years later. No, you don’t get the money when you are 65 and 66. That’s money that you would have gotten that you don’t get. That’s a huge robbery.

Again, you pay into social security and Medicare. They can’t wait to take it away from you. In fact, there’s no need in speculating about what President Obama said. After the 2011 negotiations broke down, he said this, and I quote:

“We then offered an additional $650 billion in cuts to entitlement programs – Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.”

-President Barack Obama

Politico

That’s when he was bragging about, “hey, I was willing to negotiate with Republicans. I gave them this great offer where I cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid”. You just saw it. That is exactly what President Obama said.

So you don’t think that he is going to cut it? He is going to cut it. But I keep repeating it not because I am crazy enough, like it is the most obvious thing in the world, and I keep coming out here and saying, the sky is blue, the sky is blue. It’s because the rest of the media and the rest of the Democrats and everybody else goes along and says, the sky is totally purple, purple all the time.

But he says it himself. How can you not believe it.

All right, more. President Obama says,

“I am willing to move on entitlement reform – even if my own party is resisting, and I will bring them along.”

-President Barack Obama

Politico

How much clearer does he have to be? He wants to cut entitlements: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. He is going to cut it. And he says, I’ll drag my party, screaming and fighting, if I have to do it.

Now look, it’s before an election, and some Democrats say, this is not the time to talk about this. No, before the election is the perfect time to talk about what the candidates are going to do. And by the way, part of the reason I bring it up here is because our only hope of stopping this runaway freight train is to get President Obama on the record before the election saying definitely that he will not cut those programs.

After the election you have lost all leverage. That he is going to do what he has been dying to do.

Do you know that he told the Washington Post even before his inauguration in 2009 that “I am going to cut entitlements.” How obvious is it.

Finally, when they asked President Obama’s spokesperson … now this is the campaign trail, they are pretending that they are going to protect social security and medicare as opposed to the Republicans. Would the Republicans do worse? Yes, they probably would, right? But don’t pretend that President Obama is on your side in protecting these things. He has no intention. His main claim to fame is that he won’t butcher them as much as the Republicans would.

So when they asked Ben LaBolt about it, he said,

“President Obma has always been willing to make hard choices to confront big challenges.”

-Ben LaBolt

Obama’s spokesman

Politico

You know what that means. That means, we’re cutting them. Hard choices means hard choices from your ass, not for the rich or the powerful. We’ll pretend that it’s hard.

Do you know when it’s hard? Right before an election to say that I am going to cut your social security and your medicare. That’s hard. After an election it’s easy, especially if you are never going to run for another election again.

So let’s make it hard on him. Every member of the press should ask this incredibly important issue. If you are in a town hall meeting or at a President Obama speech, you should ask him: “Will you say that you will not cut social security and medicare under any circumstances.”

I guarantee he doesn’t say it because he is going to do it. So our only hope is to get him on the record in the middle of a heated election where he cares about his own prospects and political career that he will finally say, okay, okay, okay, I won’t cut it. That’s the only hope we have.

Transcribed by

The Barefoot Accountant