People are tweeeting things along the lines of harhar Boehner's plan only cuts pennies from the deficit over the next couple of years. First point...hurray for Boehner! We're in an awful recession. Maybe even he understands that. The second point is that this just highlights how stupid it is to aim for arbitrary numbers over a ten year window when a) the 'hard' decisions are always made for a few years down the road, with some magic asterisks and b) anything which is passed can be undone by the next thing that passes. This Congress cannot and will not tie the hands of the next one.
Yes I get that the fiscal path can perhaps be nudged a bit in one direction or another, and I get that big changes to things like Social Security or Medicare can be a bit more durable than other changes(which is why I'm screaming to leave them alone), but even with those programs pissed off old people might get their way next time.
