The best way to reduce the defict: Relatedly, E.J. Dionne has an important reminder:
Here is a surefire way to cut $7.1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade. Do nothing.
That’s right. If Congress simply fails to act between now and Jan. 1, 2013, the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush expire, $1.2 trillion in additional budget cuts go through under the terms of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal, and a variety of other tax cuts also go away.
In that light, the prospect of supercommittee failure doesn’t look all that frightening.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-we-can-succeed-through-supercommittees-failure/2011/11/16/gIQA7hLXSN_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line