(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
" don't think any one has the political will to cut spending."
They can't even cut NPR's subsidy or that of the NEA. My bet is that we'll see a back-door tax increase, for example by not making certain cuts permanent. All pols of both stripes are addicted to taxing, not cutting spending.
I'm afraid that Social Security reform has been dead since spring. The uncomfortable fact is that younger Americans don't care that much about retirement, while the elderly's resistance to any change at all was ferocious (and in my view grossly irresponsible and greedy.) I am speaking in generalities here - but change will probably not come until the financial pinch makes everyone uncomfortable. Then America will make the choice of remaining a superpower, or becoming a socialist welfare state.