DV your spot on but it is the verbiage used by both parties. How is it a cut in SS if you raise the retirement age for those who are not even born yet? Another I love is we cut XXX $$$ for the poor / whoever. Reality is the cut was only a reduction in the rate of expansion as not many federal programs have been froze let alone reduced in funding.

The words mean one thing to people but are manipulated by both parties to mean something that is usually not true. The only way to cut government spending is to freeze the level of funding at say 2006 levels for say 4 years. Then allow only increases for inflation for the following 8. The pruning process would be harsh to be sure but it will happen, be it this way or a economic collapse driven by hyper inflation. As Germany found out in the late 20's and Argentina later, you can not print money endlessly.............you will collapse your economy.