Some Thoughts on Balancing the U.S. Budget

So here's the stark question facing the Congress and the President: if you believe that the deficit is a crucial problem that needs to be addressed now (a debatable question given the high rate of unemployment), how do you balance the budget: by cutting expenses in the form of reductions to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, entitlement programs that millions of our most needy rely upon, or do you increase revenues and raise taxes by returning  marginal tax rates on the wealthiest to Clinton-era levels (i.e. repeal the Bush tax cuts) and by closing loopholes that have allowed wealthy corporations and hedge funds to underpay or not pay taxes despite record profits?

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Civil War hero and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, suggested the answer: "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935).

My answer is you do both: cut unnecessary or wasteful expenses and raise revenues from those best able to afford it who profit most from our goods and services and you cut spending in areas that should not have priority like farm subsidies and some non-personnel related defense spending, for example.

Congressional Republicans, fearful of primary challenges if they acknowledge the truth about what is needed to balance the budget yet wanting to reap political capital by blaming Obama for the deficit, seem poised to walk away from a deal that would erase the deficit and secure entitlement programs for the next generations, which Obama has proposed.