And who takes the beating if you slash Social Security and Medicare by 20%? The entire medical and health care sector, for starters - obviously. But also all the small business owners who provide services to that sector and all the ones who have elderly folks among their clientele.

Hmm. Depends on how many people's benefits get cut, doesn't it?

1pg got 2 things right:

1. If the democrats raise taxes like that, they're donezo in the next election.

As in, historically. Therefore...they won't ever do it. Your premise dies right there.

2. The Boomers are dying off and subsequent generations are smaller.

And Gen X - the smallest of them all - is next in line to retire. Younger voters will be happy to make the choice of sacrificing 1 generation to 'save' 3.
We're the ones who will be asked to Take One For The Team. Will it be 20%? I don't know, but it will be nonzero.

But....that's not really this discussion, right?

Yes it is this discussion. You're the one who keeps explicitly taking reform or efficiency and everything else off the table.

You've said like 4 times "we're not doing that. We're just not".

What we're talking about is which kind of reform is more likely,

No, homie. You ruled out any possibility of a change several times before. Now we're driving with your position and seeing how fast and how hard it smacks into a stone wall -and- seeing how far all the parts fly away from the wreck.

Pretty hard and pretty far are the answers so far :).