Should not the headline be "I'm not going to take money from old people and screw students unless I can raise their taxes too?" Obama reminds me of a bit of hard up prostitute here: I will screw anyone as long as I raise enough revenue.
Yes, before you ask, this whole process is getting me rather irritable and dyspeptic.
Now, now grandpa. 
But seriously, when has Obama ever proposed raising taxes on people anywhere near middle class? He gets no credit for cutting taxes thus far.
I just wanted to kick Obama in the nuts, and let me tell you, it felt good doing it! So don't deflect me with noisome little faclets that get in the way of my badly needed catharsis. Thanks! 
Still, even if it is about raising taxes on "the rich," and of course that hardly squares the circle by any means, it sounds odd that if Obama gets more revenue, then he feels morally or something empowered to drop the hammer on students and the olds per his own words. What does one have to do with the other? And of course some money should be taken from some old people, but I digress. And I won't even touch the business about all the kids in college who should not be there, and how government money has inflated tuitions through the roof in something almost akin to a scam. I don't want to seem that mean spirited this afternoon. Perhaps tomorrow I will go for the throat.
What he's saying is that he's 100% given in the moral panic over the deficit. Never mind that none of these rabidly anti-deficit Republicans cared one iota when Reagan, Bush I, or Bush Jr were at the helm. They've all been magically converted to deficit hawks since Obama's election, and, like any good convert, they believe with all the soul and all their strength and all their might. Obama has seen the error of his ways too and is playing along. Never mind that it makes no sense to lay off hundreds of thousands of gov't workers or cut aid to the states during an unemployment crisis. What Obama is saying is that if we're going to crush the poor, disabled, and elderly, and the "circle is so hard to square" as you're so wont to remind us frequently, it's only fair to ask for some sacrifice from those who already pull most of the levers in this country.
