There are ways other than cutting Social Security and Medicare to end the federal deficit — ending the three wars, sharply reducing the military budget, raising taxes on the wealthy. A modest raise in the contribution cap for the highest income brackets would keep Social Security solvent. Social Security and Medicare are accounts separate from the federal budget — they play no part in the deficit crisis. But President Obama, compromising with congressional Republicans and fulfilling his own ambition to ‚restructure entitlements‘, has signaled his willingness to roll back the protections that his party passed in the 1930s and 1960s to give working Americans their financial security and prosperity since the mid 20th century, saving millions of people from financial destitution.