First of all beware of any politician who says "let's be honest" and especially beware of this politician who hasn't uttered an honest word in decades, if ever. The right wing approach to Social Security just astounds me. They constantly lie that it adds to the deficit and debt when that is absolutely not true. I think this is why they lumped it in with the general funds some years ago, back when Reagan was President or maybe before, but I believe it was a ploy then and it still is to use that tactic to attack SS and then they pit the old and young against each other saying the elderly are stealing the futures of the young, like we're all rich out here. Maybe the idiots that cleave to every word uttered from this liar's mouth believe that, but take a look at your paycheck once in a while and you'll see a Federal withholding tax and then a FICA tax. FICA meaning Federal Insurance Contribution Act. Withholding goes into the government's general fund and the FICA is your contribution to the SS trust fund, much like paying into an annuity or any other retirement account from which you expect a return when you retire. To means test it, as Christie suggests, is to put SS into the category of a welfare program and then the GOP will attack it from that angle. I am constantly astounded that they can come right out and attack SS, suggest raising retirement age, telling lies about it taking over the entire government budget when it's a separate tax and then hoping people will elect them? They know it's important to those who vote Republican as well as Democratic and Independent so they have to phrase it carefully, crafting lies that are palatable to the hard right base. But, I am telling you people that they are up to no good here and if you let them get a toehold into SS, they will kill it like every other social welfare program bit by bit. They will continue to manufacture crisis that can only be resolved by budget cuts, or cutting benefits or increasing the age to qualify. It will not end until SS ceases to exist.
If anything is gobbling up the entire Federal budget a little more each year it's the defense budget. After all, the more of the military that becomes privatized, the more they lobby for more war and more contracts, so more war. It is actually a bit scary that more and more of our military is private and out from under the control of the President. They certainly are not held to the same standards of conduct that our military is and do horrific things which reflect negatively on our country. I hadn't thought of the fact that as more and more of government is privatized it hands over more control to corporations who in turn, thanks to SCOTUS, fill the ever expanding campaign coffers of the Republican/Libertarian Party. I added Libertarian because that's the platform it seems they are campaigning on, not Conservatism.