The United States does not have a “deficit problem.” It has an immediate economic underperformance problem (which depresses revenues) and it has a chronic healthcare overpayment problem (healthcare is the most important driver—at this point you could fairly say the only driver—of U.S. federal spending).

Address those two concerns, and you are well on your way to a solution.

Instead, the “deficit hawk” concepts pushes us to do all kinds of other things irrelevant to the problem—and dangerously harmful in themselves…

Conversely, the one great service that “deficit hawks” could do the country somehow never seems to get done—and that is to ignite a debate over tax reform that might yield more revenue while burdening enterprise less.