David Leonhardt of the New York Times has a good rundown of the deficit and the political options for reducing it. I did, however, trip over this one line:
I’ll confess that I have a hard time seeing how any of this will happen in the next few years, no matter what the deficit commission recommends. Congressional Republicans have shown little willingness to consider any tax increases, and Mr. Obama has shown no indication of breaking his $250,000-and-under pledge.
The part about Republicans is an understatement. The part about Obama "showing no indication" that he'd consider new taxes for Americans making less than $250,000 -- what about the fact that he's proposing this commission in the first place? Isn't the whole idea of it to give him cover to raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year, in exchange for giving Republicans cover to cut entitlement spending?