A reader writes:
The single best thing you can do to reduce federal spending is to refuse to link to articles that claim it would be easy, especially politically easy that don't actually specify any specific cuts. For almost 50 years, we've heard exactly the same thing, we can cut spending by cutting unspecified waste, fraud and abuse, it will be easy and we'll get to it when we get into power. For 50 years, you've gotten no cuts in spending at all.
Politicians really do have a good sense of what will be politically feasible. There was a Medicare fight in the 1980s that probably gave control of the Senate to Democrats. There was a Medicare fight in the 1990's that probably stopped the Gingrich revolution. The arguments about health care reform that cut where arguments about Medicare cuts and death panels and that argument may doom Democrats in Congress. Maybe cutting spending is worth it, but it will be hard.
I agree that cutting spending will be hard, and I should have said as much. But refusing to link to articles you disagree with is no way to refute them.