Social Security: Needs Reform, Or Fine As Is?

During his news conference yesterday, President Obama defended his decision not to outline fixes for Medicare and Social Security in his spending plan for next year.

He said compromise on those entitlement programs is months away and will require bipartisan cooperation.  But the President also suggested that Social Security could be the first target, because he said it's not a big contributor to the deficit like Medicare and Medicaid.

"I think we can avoid slashing benefits and I think we can make it stable and stronger for not only this generation but the next generation," President Obama said.

Economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center For Economic And Policy Research, joins us to talk about the budget and what to do about these entitlement programs.