Krauthammer says that “if Republicans propose serious entitlement reform they’ll get crushed”, meaning that it won’t get enacted and it will certainly get demagogued to death. What he says they should do instead is target the entire budget by saying that they should go back to 2008 spending levels, forcing the bureaucrats to make a back room deal where both sides take a hit on this, like the tax deal. Otherwise to propose it outright, without a deal, would cost Republicans too much politically.
One thing is for sure, that if Republicans can’t get any significant cuts, then we definitely better get gridlock.