Spoken like a true "Pragmatist".
>>>Reagan could not do it.
Reagan did cut federal spending. He lowered discreationary spending in his first three years in office. If Reagan had a GOP majority control like PresBush has, he would have cut government a lot more.
>>>Bush cannot do it.
Bush doesn't want to do it. Yet. I've been holding out for some serious downsizing in a second Bush-Cheney term and this may be an early indicator of things to come.
I do not recommend draconian spending cuts and support political incrementaism. Incentives given for good management efforts are fine with me, but that only scrapes the surface. To kick start some serious fiscal responsibility in the federal government, I would support a spending freeze for one year.
Politics is a slow process, but at the rate that Social Security and Medicare are growing, before we know it these two entitlement programs will consume half of the federal budget. Right now SS and Medicare eat up 1/3rd of the federal budget and "Human Resources" --- aka. SOCIAL SPENDING --- consumes over 66% of the federal budgetary expenditures. There needs to be real reform of these two out of control federal programs, before its too late.