You kind of forgot future liabilities, didn't you? Unlike Defense spending, where there is no "promise" to spend ever increasing amounts on defense into the indefinite future, nor is the amount of defense spending linked to demographics.

The entitlement money goes right into the Treasury, (to be immediately spent on, among other things, defense) and is replaced by a "trust fund" of special treasury bills (I.O.U.s) that will one day have to be cashed in to pay for the oncoming freight train of entitlement deficits. Who do you think is going to come up with the money to cash them in?

What do you think generates all those asymptotic debt and budget curves?

^Contrast this with Defense, which spends as much (about 20% of the budget) as either Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid...^

Nice touch with the "either," but the earlier 43 percent was already up there.

"Reforming" entitlements means changing the concept for upcoming generations. Changing the concept means moving away from simple wealth redistribution. The Democrats would rather die. Good God, they went to the mattresses for $39 billion.