Former Senator Jim DeMint, who is now president of the Heritage Foundation, appeared on Larry Kudlow's CNBC show to dismiss the "laughable" sequestration spending cuts - which, as he points out, are not really "cuts" at all. Spending will continue to grow at a slightly slower, but still "dramatic," pace.
DeMint wants to hunt far bigger game: a balanced budget within 10 years. It's not as difficult as it might seem (especially after listening to the sky-is-falling Obama tactics against sequestration.) The reason something like the Penny Plan (which cuts a penny out of every dollar of spending for a decade until the budget is balanced) works is that it's a real spending cut, which also halts the incredible, perpetual growth of spending. Just taking Uncle Sam's foot off the fiscal gas pedal and bringing the spending "baseline" to zero would be scored as a "cut" of something like $4 trillion over ten years, in Washington-speak. Shave another penny off the dollar, throw in some pro-growth tax reform, and we might just avoid bankruptcy.
