Putting the issue of social security to one side for a moment, I love how Obama's solution to seemingly every question concerning government spending is to 'ask the wealthy to contribute a little bit more' without ever specifying how much and whether this would be enough to cover the cost of proposed expansions/make up deficits. Not a jibe against the broader principle in and of itself, just an observation that he does seem to repeat this as a stock response.
Well right now there is little chance of implementing such tax increases to raise substantial revenue for these proposals, so it's easy for politicians to punt ideas around about their vision of how to best spend that extra money they could raise. Obviously these ideas will change over time, but once Democrats are finally in a position to close tax loopholes and increase taxes on the wealthy, they will settle on one proposal or another.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of bitter fighting over what to do with the extra money when that time comes.
