Bill Clinton compaigned on balancing the budget and paying down the debt, but Bush the Elder would have campaigned on the same thing, had he actually run a campaign. Bush got bounced out of office because he had no "vision thing," and he caved on his "no new taxes" pledge, which really rankled.

Nearly all of the jobs in the Federal workforce that ended in during the Clinton administration were uniformed military jobs. It's true that Reagan took a "don't worry, it will fix itself" approach. But so did Clinton. He didn't work very hard at getting a balanced budget, it just fell into his lap.

cutting federal jobs would help, but the biggest items on the budget - or, more accurately I should say - the biggest 'outlays' - are entitlement programs. The budget of the United States is an extremely dodgy document. I would advise extreme scepticism whenever you see a news reporter or politician or whoever cite budget figures.

The hard work will come, though. I hope it will have to get to the point where citizens agree to opt out. Those cowards on the Hill and in the White House won't touch the issue yet. And most of them probably won't have to deal with it. The major problems won't come for several years.