> I just don't see much political appetite for austerity/entitlement cuts/more taxes

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong...

Austerity and entitlement cuts are what we've been trying since Reagan. They haven't worked. They don't work.

Raising taxes is unpopular, sure, but a) it can actually solve the problems—not just the symptoms, but make a good hard dig in at the root causes—and b) if we do it right, only a tiny fraction of the people will have to bear those increases.

Because what we need to be doing is returning tax rates to what they were like before Reagan. Before "trickle-down economics". Before all this black magic shit that has never worked, will never work, and any actual economist with a brain and a functioning heart could tell you would never work right from the start.