Not for nothing, but the last time we had a balanced budget there was a Democrat in the oval office. Expiring the Bush tax cuts would cut the deficit in about half over the next 10 years, and we could hit up the military, farm subsidies, actually send GE a tax bill and bank on a little GDP growth for the rest. It's actually not that hard to close if you're willing to look anywhere besides "cutting domestic discretionary even though THAT ENTIRE BUDGET is less than the deficit".
And, FWIW, many individual congressional republicans may have effectively had "a choice between 2 budget bills", but one of those bills (the one we're discussing) was entirely written by Republicans. So it's not like their hands were tied here, someone made the decision to go after this.
And, FWIW, many individual congressional republicans may have effectively had "a choice between 2 budget bills", but one of those bills (the one we're discussing) was entirely written by Republicans. So it's not like their hands were tied here, someone made the decision to go after this.