The Drumbeat Gets Louder

From CBS News:

With many expecting President Obama to endorse a fiscally moderate path forward in his State of the Union address next week - and perhaps call for changes to Social Security in the process -- progressives are urging the president to protect entitlement programs. ...

In an interview with Bloomberg Television that airs Friday night, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said that Social Security "might all fit within a rubric of trying to deal with deficit issues and deal with them in an appropriate way that doesn't choke off the economic recovery."

Kaine said he has not read a draft of the speech, but he said the president will address the deficit "significantly" in his State of the Union speech -- and even more so when he delivers a budget to Congress in February. ...

In light of all this, 33 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Mr. Obama today, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent reports, urging him to promise to protect Social Security in his State of the Union address. ...

Potential 2012 Republican presidential contender Tim Pawlenty published an op-ed for the Washington Post today calling for dramatic entitlement reforms.

"Given no other choice, I believe a bipartisan consensus could be created around ideas such as means-testing the cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits