The deficit

     In Obama's recently announced fiscal plan, it is projected that the annual budget deficit will fall to 3% by 2015. While a lower deficit is certainly nice, it struck me that we as a nation are so accustomed to the mounting debt that we are satisfied to know we are merely accumulating our debt more slowly, rather than actually having a balanced budget. Reinstating legislation to require all projected expenditures to come bundled with their revenue (I forget what it's called) will help us to prevent the deficit from growing, but won't address the deficit we already have. I have a plan for that. A diabolical plan.

     Let the deficit as it currently stands be expressed as a dollar amount. Let that amount be divided into two parts. One part will be tackled by increasing taxes, and the other half by cutting spending. But here's the delicious twist. A Democratic committee assigns the taxes, and a Republican committee makes the cuts.

     Can you imagine? I can.