As much as Bill Maher's increasingly cynical attitude is rubbing me the wrong way, he DID come up with a graphic that might finally get people to understand the budgetary problem. It was a big plate of food with heaping servings of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and mac & cheese representing Defense, Social Security and Medicare. There was a baby carrot, a couple of slices of radish and a parsley leaf representing Discretionary Spending. He basically said that we're only slicing the baby carrot and until we start paring the chicken, potatoes and mac & cheese, we're not going to make progress.