There are a lot of articles online that ask the musical question, "Just what it is the Republicans want Barack Obama to cut before they'll agree to make a deal on taxes and the debt limit?" The best one seems to be this one by Ezra Klein.
For what little it may be worth, here's my answer to the question. I think that candidly stated, the G.O.P. demand to Obama would go something like this…
We demand that you slash Social Security and Medicare and that you do it in such a way that most folks will blame you, not us, and we can then use it as a campaign issue against Democrats!
Or something like that. I also think it's not going to happen.