[T. Rustin Noone]

I see your point and agree that we are going the wrong way. The trouble with taxing imports or tariffs is that they don't work. We made a Great Depression out of deep recession in the 1930’s doing just that. In addition, the low cost of imports has actually kept the ACTUAL cost of the current economy marginally tolerable for lots of people on low or fixed incomes. If we actually had to pay for our daily goods and services at the rate supported by the American standard of living we'd all be living on cat food - made in Honduras.
I think that YankeeReb has it right - drop spending back to 2008 levels and then cut from there. And eliminate baseline budgeting. The baseline budget scheme Congress came up with years ago has contributed to more of the current fiscal nightmare than almost anything else. It reinforces failed policies at ever higher levels and discourages debating the actual value of programs.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

What we did at the time of the Great Depression, was actually the opposite of we would do now.

Back then we made everything here.

Now we import everything. That is a huge difference.