Ideas seem simple, until you look deeper. Take cutting the military budget. Its a ridiculous idea. Lets just assume for a moment that reality is suspended and you could cut the military budget by 50%. Thats only 10% of the budget, just enough to cover the annual deficit spending, which is roughly equal to the amount we borrow to pay the interest, but does nothing to lower the principle. So we weaken our military for no tangible financial benefit long-term. It doesn't tackle the problem that over 60% of the budget is entitlements.
Not to mention, we would have to change from an all-volunteer, high tech force to a low-tech conscripted force. You have to understand that all of the expensive military equipment is what we call force multipliers and star-off weapons. We have a much smaller military than Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, India, or China. Even Iran has 30% more men in uniform than the US.
We offset that quantitative difference through the quality of our military equipment. I personally witnessed what that means in Iraq in 1991. The air defense system in Bagdad was a recently installed, state of the art, Soviet system manned by Soviet "consultants". The F-117 shredded it. Our M-1 Abrams, complete with JSTARS uplinks tore apart the Soviet T-72s. And lets not forget the ability of cruise missiles and smart bombs to not only act as force protecting stand-off weapons, but also their ability to reduce collateral damage as well.
These weapons systems are expensive, but they save lives on both sides of the battlefield. Remove those, and we'll need a much larger conventional force. The current rate of service of 9.8 per 1000 per capita - also among the lowest in the world, would necessarily need to be increased by 100%, requiring compulsory service.
The thing is, we could pull the covers off every potential cut and show that each will incur a significant mount of pain and changes to how this country conducts itself domestically and on the world stage. It doesn't make any one of them the right or wrong cuts. Instead, it shows how complex this mess is right now and why why have to deal with it right now. Because the longer it goes on, the worse it will be.
Instead of a hack and slash approach (Cut military or cut Medicaid), we're going to have to put each and every program on the table and take to it with a scalpel. We're going to have to make the tough calls and everyone is going to feel it.
Thats the real art of the deal. It isn't each side competing for a Win/Lose, its all sides feeling an equal amount of pain and being equally pissed off.
But, IMHO, it starts with a Balanced Budget Amendment that forces the issue into the light of day and requires Congress to deal with it head on instead of ducking it.
You may hate the Tea Party, but this is the first time any political group as forced Washington to do more than just raise the debt ceiling and go further into debt.
