Atrios is Saruman with a better grilling technique

He doesn't predict, he merely foretells:

As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal. The move marks a major shift for the White House and could present a direct challenge to Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to protect health and retirement benefits from the assault on government spending.

The Republicans merely went on the record of wanting to eliminate it, now they will manage to run against the Democrats for actually tampering with it.