Marlene Stringer

"I promise to not raise your taxes" and "I promise to not cut your benefits" are the two popular political promises that are inconsistent with the much more needed promise "I promise to cut the budget deficit to about 3 percent of GDP" that is required to prevent a big debt/dollar crisis. There is no way that the deficit/debt bomb problem can be sustainably dealt with unless there is a mix of tax revenue increases and spending decreases that are determined in a bipartisan way. Our representatives in Washington, DC, both Republicans and Democrats, know this is true. They understand the need to reduce the deficit by having those from both sides chip in a bit (e.g., a 4 percent increase in tax revenue and a 4 percent spending cut) which would lead to a supply/demand balance improvement for US debt which in turn would lower interest rates. Lower interest rates would help reduce the budget deficit as well as help the markets and the economy. But because politics have become so absolutist, they feel they can't go down this obviously best path because both their constituents and their parties will throw them out of office if they explored this more balanced approach. To me, that’s a tragedy.