The only way to solve our present dilemma and return some fiscal sanity to Washington is for leaders on both sides of the congressional aisle and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to rediscover a way to work together on the problems they were sent to Washington to solve. I know it can be done because I once helped make it happen in Congress, and now we’ve made it work for eight straight years of structurally balanced, cost-cutting budgets in Ohio.

It won’t be easy and it sure won’t happen overnight. But step by step, it can work. Those steps: Do it over time; take out the politics; modernize and, if necessary, privatize government programs; eliminate those not meeting 21st century needs; and don’t let people stuck in the status quo dictate your agenda.

In other words, find ways to provide high-quality, efficient public services at lower costs. That’s something every other sector of the worldwide economy has found a way to do — except a federal government that’s unwilling or unable to act. We did it in Ohio when we dramatically reformed our Medicaid program and cut our spending growth from a 9 percent yearly average between 2009 and 2011 to an average of less than 4 percent from 2012 to 2013 — all without denying coverage to those who rely on it.