According to The New York Times, January 7, 2009:
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be “a central part” of his administration’s efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.
Far be it for me to tell the President-elect what to do, but I recall that the late great Representative from Massachusetts Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr., said: Social security is the third rail of politics. Touch it and you're dead!
(O'Neill was an outspoken Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts of Massachusetts. He was the Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987, making him the second longest-serving Speaker in U.S. history after Sam Rayburn and the longest-serving Speaker without a break.)
