The GOP, Medicare and Math

Howard Dean recently made news with an editorial at the WSJ.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324110404578628542498014414.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Opinion
Summary: His clients in the healthcare industry REALLY don't like the idea of controlling Medicare costs.

Reactions?
From Peter Orzag, a complete slapdown:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-30/critics-are-wrong-about-the-medicare-payment-board.html
From the Tea Party GOP, newfound love and admiration for Howard Dean.

So.
The Tea Party GOP is against:
 - efforts to control Medicare costs.
 - cuts to the Military (which is reasonable, given their preference for invading Iran)
 - cuts to Social security
 - tax increases (indeed, Romney tax cuts for EVERYONE)
 - deficits and debt.

Let's see the logic of this.
Here's the President's 2013 budget, more or less: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget

Medicare/Medicaid:         $   941 billion
Social Security:                $   883 billion
Defense/VA/Security*:    $ 1,035 billion
Total "Big Three":            $ 2,859 billion 
Add Net Interest:              $    246 billion      
"Big Three" + Interest =   $ 3,105 billion
Everything else: $ 702 698 billion  
Total Spending:                $ 3,803 billion

Total Revenue:  $2,902.
Total spending:  $3,803
Deficit:                 $901 billion.

Summing up:
The Tea Party GOP seems to be against cutting Medicare, Social Security, or Defense, and against raising taxes. 
Indeed, the GOP wants tax cuts.
And their number one issue is the deficit.

Math is hard.



*Defense/VA/Security:
DOD            $673
VetAffairs     140
State                60
Homeland       55
Nat Intel.        53
NASA            17
Justice            20  (FBI, Marshalls, law enforcement & prisons)
Energy           17 - for nuke plant/waste security http://antaresgroupinc.com/doe-2013-budget-breakdown/   

Total = 1.035 Trillion