$500 billion is really not that much, but Ryan's plan won't win support from even his own party.

We can either make deficit cuts, or make cuts in MEDICARE and MEDICAID (unless we can somehow reduce the interest we pay on our debt) and while the Dems' 5 year plan to freeze non-security, discretionary spending would eliminate $400 billion from budget deficits over a decade (a relatively modest amount) not once last night did the President fully embrace the Simpson-Bowles plan because neither side is ready to commit to a full plan right now as it involves cuts in social security & medicare-caid during election season.

It's the LARGER deficit problem that should be at hand right now according to conservatives, while the dems want to kick the social security and more pressing medicare/caid problem down the road apiece. Not that cutting those programs a bit is necessarily the worst thing ever mind you, because there's plenty of investment opportunity internationally to make up for that loss.

No mention was made of the GOP proposed plan to cut 2.5 trillion in spending over the next four years. And in all of the optimism last night not once was mentioned the fact that states like Illinois are on the verge of bankruptcy nor the impending immense Fannie-Freddie bill that will come due soon.

And all of the energy plans the President made, while interesting, were 25 years down the road. Outside of Canada and Mexico every country in the energy trade is more or less our economic enemy.

Safe to say it's going to be a heated election season.