Entitlement Spending

Tom Brokaw seems really worried about entitlement spending. He wants to know if the candidates "would give Congress a date certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within 2 years."

Obama: "I can't guarantee we are going to do it in the next two years, but I would like to do it in my first term as president."

McCain: "It's not that hard to fix Social Security, it's just decisions. It's not that tough, we know the problems and we know what the fixes are." Says he can do it through bipartisanship. "Senator Obama has never taken on his party leaders on a single party issue." Proposes a commission to look at Medicare spending, similar to the BRAC Commision to close military bases.