I just wrote something similar in another thread, but I think it bears repeating: the Left´s modern MO is to propose something genuinely absurd and totally unworkable, thus forcing us to engage. Once we are part of the process, they can do whatever degree of damage they can manage, and count on the Media to enforce the meme of at least shared blame, if not outright distortion of fact and reality.

It is pure pragmatism, which is Evil wearing a false sense of function as a disguise. Saul Alinsky will haunt us for centuries.

How does the national debt get paid off if we only get to a balanced budget eventually? We need to run surpluses for years to payoff the $16 trillion Federal debt. That will never happen. My problem with a balanced budget is that taxes can just be raised in order to spend more and stay balanced. I have no faith that either party will has any interest in spending less and paying off the debt.

The debt ceiling IS a balanced budget un-Amendment - the Federal Government can only spend what it takes in through tax receipts and fees. The Federal Government would have to live within its means unless the Republican-controlled House votes to increase the debt limit. Equivalent to a person with no credit cards or bank credit lines - you can´t spend what you don´t have.

The Republicans are playing a losing hand and have zero chanch of winning, but not for a reason that most people would admit. The Speaker knows he cannot count on a single committee chairman to agree to give up a single dollar of his appropriation request. This is why the Speaker can only talk about the debt ceiling and not individual programs. The President obviously understands this and will always have the advantage and in the end will succeed in defeating the Republicans once again in their attempt to control spending

FTA: The country is well aware of the importance of living within one´s means, and might welcome the opportunity to teach politicians the same lesson, rather than allowing them to continue spending our nation´s future away.

Sorry, but the reelection of BO shows this statement to be false. The majority of Americans do NOT understand fiscal reality. They only know that progressive politicians (and some Republicans) keep promising them stuff for free. They reelected those politicians. They do not understand that you may "vote" yourself a Mercedes and a mansion but that doesn´t mean you will really get one.

Fiscal law trumps political law every time. Americans remain sadly ignorant of that fact.

So if you are expecting the "public" to be on the side of "fiscal responsibility", lots of luck with that.

I agree that we need to fight progressive out of control spending. But Conservatives need to craft the message differently. Appeals to fiscal rationality continue to fail.

Why not take out the stimulus spending from the baseline budget. If you can add a trillion to the budget then you can take it out! If Bush was such a big spender blamed for the deficit take that out as well. This gets us back the the clinton era. What could be wrong with that? It is just a matter of cutting spending as easily as increasing it. With all this spending cut you have a balanced budget and no need to increase the debt ceiling.

We went up this road not too long ago, and the bluff that was never called was that Social Security checks would NOT stop coming. Although the long-term outlook for the program isn´t pretty, there´s plenty of cash to keep it alive for the foreseeable future no matter how badly the politicians try to screw things up.

Well, first you have to actually HAVE a budget.

/s off/

You do this and you are giving in!
No to spending increases period. Pay off the bills like everyone else has to!