Barney Frank Hints At Means Test For Social Security and Medicare

TPM reports that Barney Frank is open to some sort of means test for entitlements:

"A means test done in an efficient way isn't a problem," he said. "I understand that. Like in Social Security. We already have a partial means test. I get Social Security. My Social Security income is taxed as it should be. I would increase the tax rate on my Social Security income. You don't want to means test it up front -- that becomes awkward -- but say you're making more than $100,000? Tax my Social Security at 95 percent. That's fine. There's an easy way to do that."

On Medicare, "I would be for increasing copays for people above a certain income," Frank said. "I think high copays for people making more than $100,000 is perfectly reasonable."

Why not just outright cuts on the wealthy seniors?