With due respect, DK, if those were the marching orders that you gave the Congress and they came back with ideas like...

• Means test Social Security payments so that only the lowest-income Americans, who had no other means of support, recieved payments.
• Eliminate Medicare insurance for all but those Americans who can't afford to pay for their own healthcare insurance.
• Simply stop spending on infrastructure projects.
• Draw down our military and reduce defense expenditures to peacetime levels.
• Or, stop completely any and all payments to foreign countries for aid to their sick, homeless or threatened citizens.

...would you be satisfied? Those types of steps would certainly meet the objective of "...simply stop spending". But would you be satisfied with the result?

We really do need to form some specific opinions on what we expect from our government, what we're willing to give up, and whether we're willing to pay any more for what government provides.