Obama and Romney Agree on Social Security?

Wednesday's debate may have made the biggest news because of the general perception that former Governor Romney won.  However, lost in this coverage was reporting on how they clarified their differences on what to do about Social Security which - to hear politicians and pundits talk about it - is heading over a cliff.  So how did they respond when Jim Lehrer asked to start off segment three on entitlements: "First — first answer goes to you, two minutes, Mr. President. Do you see a major difference between the two of you on Social Security?"

President Obama's response:

"You know, I suspect that, on Social Security, we've got a somewhat similar position. Social Security is structurally sound. It's going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Speaker — Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill. But it is — the basic structure is sound."

For the rest of his comments, the President drilled down on significant differences over Medicare.  Moreover, in former Governor Romney's response he didn't mention Social Security in any substantive way, basically providing tacit agreement with the President's assertion that some tweaking needs to be done.  Of course, on the subject of Medicare there was plenty of rebuttal and counter-rebuttal.

This provides considerable support to my ongoing assertion that the problems Social Security faces over the long term can be fixed and both parties understand quite well the alternatives that will get us there - the "tweaking" to borrow from the President's words.  Sure the solutions will be bitterly argued  - isn't everything in Washington nowadays? - and some toes will be stepped on.  Still, the fact that it wasn't worth 30 seconds of time in a ninety minute debate tells us volumes about how shallow the gulf is between the parties on this subject.  Will the tax rate or tax cap be moved higher on current workers?  Will the retirement age be raised?  Will the cost of living adjustment be lowered?  All these will pinch workers and/or retirees.  However, a pinch here and there is far less painful than the massive cuts or tax hikes needed to solve our other fiscal problems like Medicare, Medicaid, and the debt.  Compared to those, the Social Security problem is worth about 30 seconds of the candidates' time.