The biggest mistake is thinking that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are a liberal issue. It wasn't Democrats who rejected the Affordable Care Act with "get your government hands off my Medicare".
Cutting entitlement programs is popular among Republicans when you say it in the abstract. But there are an awful lot of elderly Republicans who are gonna get real grumpy when the checks stop coming.
So I'd say it's a complete political non-starter. Maybe it would be sensible, but voters never actually vote for fiscal responsibility -- no matter what they tell themselves.
