No one's arguing we don't have a deficit. The question is what are we willing to give up to pay it up, and/or how much more in taxes are we willing to accept to cover the rest.

The rest of the argument revolves around what we give up, and who pays the difference.

I have a suggestion. Since retired Spanish-speaking Navy veteran geographers are such a tiny portion of the population, cutting their benefits or increasing their taxes would have absolutely no effect on the budget deficit. Therefore they should be exempt from any budget reform plan proposed by Congress. In fact. They should get a tax break, so they'll 'create jobs' by staying retired and not come back into the work force and compete with youngsters for scarce positions. If you can guarantee me that, I'll change my party registration to Republican.

If you can't, then everybody should give up something, and everybody should pay something. And the more you have the more you should pay and/or the more you should give up.

Anything else is a scam to get those with less to pay the bills, while those with more get a free ride. Only a fool or a villain could see it any other way.