Kudos to Virginia's Senator Mark Warner and Georgia's Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss for introducing a bill that will actually take a step toward solving America's deficit problem!
Last week, a client faxed me a Tea Party newsletter that said "revenue is not the problem; spending is the problem." While that sound bite is correct, it is less than helpful as it confuses what spending really is. If we fired every single Federal employee and eliminated every penny to foreign aid, the U.S. will still face bankruptcy if it doesn't deal with the entitlement issues of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. (I watched two Tea Partiers being interviewed this weekend, and they would not even commit to "means-testing" Social Security . . . so, what are they for . . . specificially?)
The beauty of the Warner-Chambliss bill is that it is all-or-nothing. Nit-picking is too easy and provides an excuse to avoid difficult decisions. There are plenty of specific things I don't like about their bill but hope it passes anyway! Unless everybody's ox gets gored, mine included, we are lost.
