There's the public rhetoric and the private rhetoric, and I'm obviously mostly not privvy to the latter, but I do worry that our Democratic overlords don't understand Republicans.
They don't actually care about cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Yes, they would cut them happily if they thought they could get away with it. But they don't actually care. The point is that these are not actually "bargaining chips" with any value.
Sure Republicans want to steal Social Security money and give it to their friends or destroy it. But modest tweaks to benefit formulas really don't excite them. What's the last thing Republicans did with Medicare? They increased spending significantly so they could... give some of the money to their rich friends.
Tax cuts for rich people and giving money to their rich friends. This is what interests them.
