I don't disagree that is the kind of thing that will be necessary to begin to attack the deficit problem.

The first impediment is to get a Congress who will vote on a discretionary budget that includes massive reductions in government services and of course employment. Then, yes, Congress could vote for an across-the-board 20% pay cuts and cut in retirement and health benefits.

Alternatively, we could have a President who refused to sign and ratify any appropriations bills that didn't reflect those sorts of cuts...and mean it, playing "chicken" with the Congress and actually shutting down the federal government totally for awhile to get his point across if necessary.

The next step would have to be an attack on the "mandatory" spending with big cuts in Social Security payments, massively reduced Medicare coverage and dramatically increased premiums, deductibles and co-pays, probably means testing for both Social Security and Medicare, and a complete cutoff of federal support to the state Medicaid programs.

And then, after figuring out whether any Congress under the control of any political party would vote for such sweeping and life-changing cuts in government, there's the legal problem of the requirements of the government employee's union contracts.

The problem of our irresponsible government over a decade and even more, as so aptly stated by Pat Buchanan in his February 26, 2010 column is...

"The question raised by the successive failures (of our government) is whether either party has a cure for the maladies that afflict America. Or are those maladies beyond the power of politics to heal?

Have we become a people incapable of accepting the sacrifices previous generations made, and of producing leaders with the vision and strength of character that our leaders of old possessed?