Maybe our dysfunctional Congress is a good thing.

What's in place right now are things that will happen at the beginning of 2013 that will whack about $7 trillion off the national debt in the coming decade. The changes will drive the annual deficits a lot closer to the targeted level of federal spending accepted by most fiscal experts, without even touching Social Security or Medicare.

Will it hurt? Sure. We'll all be paying noticeably more taxes with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. And the Defense Department will really be hurting with the deep cuts that will apply to them. And we all will see some noticeable cuts to services and social programs. But diets and budget cuts will always cause some pain and discomfort, so no big deal.

With the automatic changes beginning in 2013, we won't have the money to run around being policeman to the world, then re-building he countries we bomb. And we'll all be paying a fair share of the cost of the government services we demand. And the cuts that will automatically be achieved will be done without touching any entitlement programs. So they will remain as low-hanging fruit for even further cuts. What's wrong with any of that?

So I guess I've given up on Congress ever coming back from the brink of the deep and widening ideological and political divide between the parties. But maybe that's a good thing. They'll never get enough consensus to overturn the automatic spending cuts and tax increases that will happen beginning next year.

What's going to happen will have the result that we all know are necessary. So what are we arguing about?