That scary budget deficit! The one that scares the hell out of Pick’n Save lady. What can we possibly do about it?

Republicans say they care about it, but they don’t. The Bush tax cuts blew an enormous hole in the federal budget going forward but they aren’t even willing to entertain the idea that we might, at some point, let some of them expire as planned.

They are, however, willing to kill Medicare and instead give seniors coupons to buy private health insurance. They are willing to raise the eligibility age for Social Security and lower its benefits. Strangely, they aren’t willing to cut military spending, though.

Need I remind you of which presidents presided over which periods of deficit growth and shrinkage? Need I remind you of what Dick Cheney famously said about deficits? No. They don’t truly care about deficits. They just use it as a bludgeon to attack spending they don’t like. Citizens who care about fiscal responsibility should really think twice before ever voting for these guys.

Hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t you fix the deficit? You can (at least for pretend) with this Budget Puzzle page at the NY Times. I know it’s from 2010, but it’s still a hoot. I got the feds back in the black in nothing flat just by clicking 12 boxes. And at a 65/35-ish ratio of spending cuts to tax increases. Try it!