We don’t have to slash benefits to middle class families to reduce the deficit.  There are some common sense solutions to deficit reduction that don’t target benefits to the poor and middle class such as reforms to the corporate tax system that provides more than $1 trillion  in wasteful tax breaks and loopholes. Here is a breakdown of just some of the options America’s multimillionaire CEO’s and Wall Street don’t want to talk about:

As Congress moves forward to deal with the debt limit, the sequester, the Fiscal Year 2013 Continuing Resolution and the Budget for Fiscal Year 2014, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, along with the vast majority of Americans of all ages and political affiliations, urges Congress to oppose all efforts which would adversely affect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries today and in the future. 

A trio of self inflicted congressional "crises" set the stage for an assault on middle-class benefits.

Social Security has not contributed a dime to the deficit and should not be used as a bargaining chip in any closed-door debt deal. However, the Bowles-Simpson plan currently being used as the starting point for Congressional deficit discussions proposes Social Security benefit cuts as much as 36% for young people entering the workforce today.

The Bowles-Simpson plan raises the eligibility age for full retirement benefits to 691/2 and early retirement to age 64. This proposal will mean a15% across-the-board benefit cut for retirees by the year 2080.

By changing the formula used to calculate monthly benefits, Bowles-Simpson cuts Social Security income for all future beneficiaries. These cuts are slated to begin in just 5 years (2017) contrary to claims that no Social Security changes would impact current or near retirees.

Deliberations about how to address the nation's long-term deficit, as well as how to pay for preventing a reduction in payments to physicians, include proposals for means testing Medicare - that is, requiring higher-income beneficiaries to pay more of Medicare's costs.