[dude1394]

Back to the spending a little bit. The political tact of folks who are opposed to reducing spending is to ask for specifics on how it will get done. Which exact programs will you cut, defense, ss, etc. It's a political tactic that is very effective. Because as soon as you do say what you might cut (even if it's 5%) you are accused of making grandma eat dog food, starving this person/starving that person.

The only way to actually do any of this imo is an across the board cut of say 10% on everything. SS, medicare/medicaid, defense, everything...

It's the only way that would seem to be able to pass political muster. If you were ballsy you'd target 20% and phase it in over x years or have a sliding scale that x% will be reduced until 10-15 years from now you were balanced. I understand the political will to stick to that for 10-15 years is almost non-existent as government is even more experienced at getting over their own laws than a good-tax attorney is at getting out of taxes, better actually because they aren't getting sued by someone and their legal pockets are infinite.

But I confess it's very tough to see anyone actually fixing this short of a debacle. But I give the tea party credit for actually giving a crap enough to try.