If you are going to solve a vexing problem in a logical way one would ordinarily seek out the root cause of the problem and fix those things that caused the problem in the first place.
In the case of the deficit the over riding cause has been totally ignored and that is why all the fixes being proposed are so unpalatable.
Follow below the fold and see how easily the current mess can be fixed - if we really want to fix it.
The underlying cause for the Deficit Problem is two fold -
First, the American Wage Earner, who is also an American Taxpayer, has not had a raise in 30 years thus starving the Government of trillions of dollars in tax revenue they would have otherwise received
And second of course are those two colossally stupid wars that made a hand full of people obscenely rich but again squandered trillions of taxpayer dollars that could have been better spent elsewhere.
So now that we know the cause what is the cure?
Obviously we cannot undo the wars and just as obviously, we cannot now give the American Wage Earner 30 years of back pay ( minus taxes ).
So what should we do?
Very simple. We talk of "shared sacrifice" yet by this we mean we want to ask the people who just went with out a raise for the past 30 years to somehow do even more sacrificing by giving up future retirement and Health Care Benefits.
No that is not the way.
If there is to be "shared sacrifice" then it has to be the ones who profited over those 30 years while the American Wage Earner stagnated who do the sacrificing this time and how better to do that than this.
We simply Nationalize the Banks ( After all we bailed them out, they should help bail us out ), we Nationalize the oil companies ( we fought these stupid wars to protect their interests and make them rich ) and we Nationalize Health Care ( after all it is unfunded Medicare that is the biggest contributor to the deficit problem so why shouldn't the Government be allowed to take the whole Health Care System over and run it as cost effectively as possible.
And as one final underlying rationale for this approach let us remember that the current mess was really caused by unbridled Capitalism running amok. It would only be fitting if we invoked a strong dose of socialism to clean up the mess.
And in any event, it will finally truly be "Shared Sacrifice"
By the way it did not take me any where near as long as the Cat Food Commission took to come up with this solution proving that Ronald Reagan was right about one thing - There really are simple answers to most of our problems - if we have the courage to use them.