Nope, you're not just stirring the pot Donna. It's simple arithmetic now. And that would be the case whether or not the health reform bill was passed.

There is no possible way that the federal budget can be reduced enough to produce a balanced budget. The spending increases of the last ten years assures that. Now, the interest on the national debt and the costs of Social Security and Medicare for a rapidly aging population almost assures that those benefits will have to be cut. The means testing that you mentioned seems to make the most sense to most people--those people who are better off financially will have to accept less in the form of SSA payments, higher Medicare premiums, lower deductions, higher co-pays and the like.

But even that won't be anywhere near enough to balance the budget and begin to pay off the humongous national debt we have built up in only a decade. You can expect the defense budget to have to take a heavy whack--maybe as the result of not being the defender of the rest of the world. And income taxes will have to be increased for sure.

All those things will have to happen regardless of what political party is in power. It's simple arithmetic. The only real question is: when will Congress get started on taking the inevitable actions.