It seems the federal deficit has become the new version of American Idol. We started with great interest in the subject, then after week after week of exposure to this topic, we get saturated with the coverage (or exposure) and flip the channel to another video diversion. To complete the analogy, maybe the appropriate replacement programming would be ABC's "Wipeout".
The Constitution dictates that all revenue bills originate in the House of Representatives (Article 1 Section 7). Simply put, the House of Representatives does the budget and initiates all spending bills.
One of the cornerstones of conservative thought is that taxes should be as low as possible. The wisdom of that position is that you leave more money in the pockets of the people that earned it and they will spend some (increased economic activity, higher tax revenue) and they will save some (more money flowing in to banks, some of which can be loaned to companies and citizens who spend it, thus creating economic activity that is taxable also).
When you hear talk about the size and chronic nature of the deficit, the debate almost always comes with a call for lower taxes creating higher revenue. A few lone rangers (Senator Coburn comes to mind) stay on topic and bring up spending but most don't. That's exactly backwards and the heart of the problem.
The representatives of the people can establish taxes, which is the bureaucracy's balanced budget spending amount. If taxes are deemed to high, the people's representatives vote to lower them and spending must be adjusted accordingly. Our politicians have corrupted the process so we think of spending as a separate issue from revenue. No one (or not enough) has the courage to battle spending down to the revenue level. If you watch the news, the greatest amount of air time is devoted to the spending bills. That exposure causes the elected officials to "protect" the current spending levels no matter what. If it fits within government revenues, that's fine. If it doesn't, thou shalt not reduce spending. Although the preceding seems to be carved in stone, no one holding the stone tablet can be remotely compared to Moses or his higher higher up authority.
We can't solve the deficit because the political debate has been hijacked by those who would narrow it down to only a small portion of the issue. Revenue? Don't increase taxes to cover spending. Spending? Don't cut it to match revenue, just establish what is off limits, add lip service to cutting what is left, and leave the gap (known as deficit) to be reported and subsequently buried in arcane reporting of actual numbers and ignored by the politicians and citizens alike.
Please note that many states and municipalities have a balanced budget amendment in their Constitution or city charters. The one's that don't are making news for another reason these days. I refer to the "b" word, bankruptcy. Laugh, chortle, and guffaw at Oklahoma all you want America. We have such an amendment. The same with the other states who require living within their annual income, and champion not using a giant credit public card. When California, New York, and maybe our Federal government are in default or filing bankruptcy, the rest of us will be chugging along in life minding our checkbooks.
Once again the wisdom of the little common man and woman (please note veiled reference to traditional marriage here) will triumph.
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