Hoyer: Medicare, SS cuts need to stay on the table

Everything, including cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits, should remain on the table as party leaders seek to hash out an end-of-the-year budget deal, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday. …

“They clearly are on the table,” Hoyer said during his weekly press briefing in the Capitol. “They were on the table in the Boehner-Obama talks. They’ve been on the table for some period of time. That does not mean that I’d be prepared to adopt them now, but they’re clearly, I think, on the table.

“We have many Republicans say ‘absolutely not’ … on rates or revenues,” he added. “There are Democrats on our side who say ‘absolutely not’ if they do A and they do B and they do C. … You’ve got to put everything on the table.”