This seems like such a no brainer. Pay for half the deficit with tax increases, and the other half with spending cuts. Spread the spending cuts out equally to everything, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the military (Social Security is not yet contributing to the deficit). For the tax increase side, increase the gas tax and raise marginal tax rates on those making over $100,000. If the gas tax is too unpalatable, then just raise marginal rates on everyone.
On the spending cut side, we are never going to get anywhere with what's going on now: liberals unwilling to cut anything, and conservatives only willing to cut things they hate like family planning and public broadcasting. Not only are these cuts miniscule compared to military and Medicaid/Medicare spending, but they obviously cannot be expected to engender the bipartisan approach we need to get this done. Americans are ready to sacrifice if it's a shared sacrifice, with equal across-the-board reductions in spending. Once we balance the budget, if one side wants to move bills to take money from one program and move it to another, we can consider those efforts on the merits.
And we can't do this all with spending cuts- these are programs that really affect people, whether it's the elderly or the troops. Not since the 20s has the inequality between the wealthy and poor been so great, and tax rates on the wealthy are at all-time lows. The situation we are in has given lie to the notion that tax cuts for the wealthy somehow can create low deficits. Exactly the opposite is true (duh), and we need to raise taxes. We should do this first by raising the gas tax (we are far below the world average), which has the twin benefits of reducing pollution/encouraging efficiency/reducing reliance on foreign oil, as well as raising revenue. Now this would disproportionately affect lower income people, so we should balance it with increases in the income taxes on the well-to-do, back to historic rates. Again, shared sacrifice.
Aren't these measures just common sense?
postscript in the "fiscal cliff" days. Well I guess my proposal is basically advocating the fiscal cliff! Maybe not the best fix in these not-recovered-from-recession-yet days, but I'm glad we are facing it to secure some real budget fixes
