The problem is that we all know the federal government wastes billions of dollars on people and programs that they have no duty to be in business with. Food stamp fraud. Unnecessary administrative costs to dispense Social Security checks. The list is virtually endless. No one is willing to eliminate or reduce their benefits they feel they have already paid for (via FICA tax, etc.) — the pay-as-you-go notion not withstanding. Why should any legitimate US citizen agree to give up benefits/entitlements when the pittance they will give up will be donated to the UN, and spent wining and dining Red Chinese diplomats as examples. The whole cost of one year’s worth of Social Security checks for anyone would not begin to cover the cost of a POTUS trip to India. Squeeze the waste out until it hurts, and then come talk about reducing Social Security and Medicare.
I will not wait until you agree. We do not have that kind of time. At the present rate of deficit spending, we are going to go bankrupt as a country in three to six years of time. Our budget has to be balanced and balanced NOW. Those two charts that Rush talked about are only part of the story. The rest of the story is the rate at which we are accumulating debt, the difference between those two charts.
We cannot wait until all the spending we don’t like is cut from the budget. We have to also cut the spending we do like.
Frankly I think your thinking is too pervasive and I don’t think we will make it. That is why I am preparing to leave.