Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Monday that he worried about President Barack Obama caving to Republican demands to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"I get nervous that instead of bringing back the old Clinton-era tax rates for the wealthiest people — 39.6 [percent] — there may be a way to wiggle out of that," he said on Current TV. "I get very nervous when I hear the president and others continue to talk about ‘entitlement reform,’ which I’m afraid is just another word for cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, maybe even Social Security."
During the debt ceiling negotiations last year, Obama proposed cutting $248 billion from Medicare and $72 billion from Medicaid in exchange for increased tax revenue. But Republicans, who objected to the tax increased, opposed the plan.
Sanders said he hoped that Democrats would stick to their promise to allow tax cuts for wealthy Americans to expire.
"The President cannot and must not yield on the most important point," he said, "that we go back to the tax rates of the Clinton-era. That's were the money is and that's where we've got to go."
Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below:
