re: #242 palomino

But does any of that add to a balanced budget anytime soon? Its seems to me that the TP and much of the GOP is operating under a fantasy regarding deficit reduction. Their numbers don’t add up if 75%+ of the budget is off limits.

That bipartisan deficit reduction committee is almost certainly gonna tell us to do what we did in the 90s—cut spending and raise taxes. Which will be impossible as Dems will only agree to significant spending cuts if there are some tax hikes. Which in turn is impossible as the GOP will reject any tax increase, no matter how much Dems are willing to compromise on spending cuts.

I don’t know what you consider major military cuts, but do we really have to continue spending more on defense than the rest of the world combined?

Yes, we do. We have a lot of weapons systems that are needing replacement or major upgrades and we’ve got lots of enemies. Gates can try to cut some waste, but that’s all. We really do need to maintain our existing capabilities.