Sorry this is so late; I spent an enjoyable afternoon with my 3 children and son-in-law, and just got home.
Any formula that requires that Congress acts responsibly with receipts in excess of current spending is optimistic, at best.
The Roman Republic had a program where a citizen would be appointed dictator during a crisis, for a term of 6 months. Then the dictator would retire back into private life. In our current form of government, that would give this person only 6 months to clear the Beltway of the lobbies and the Ted Kennedy types and the lifers in the government, act in the best interest of the country, and have a replacement who would not undo the good work.
I am not optimistic about this possible solution. Somebody else mentioned the Wiemar Republic on this thread today; I hope that what comes out of the American version of that will be more enlightened than what came out of the original.
My alter-ego was the first Roman dictator to go beyond the limit (Caesar was the second). This led to considerable unpleasantness.
I honestly believe change will NOT be easy or simple. Your comment, and more from kabar, bray and others, expose the problems to accomplish what really needs to be done.
The best Republicans can hope to accomplish is getting commitments to help slow, and where possible reduce, the growth of government.
I wish I were wrong. If anyone has a better idea I’d like to learn about it.