With no changes in the budget, the annual federal debt will increase again after seven years of shrinking under Obama. The reason is that the "baby boom" generation is getting old and going on Social Security and Medicare, which are two large parts of the federal budget. What is needed is an increase in revenues, especially in withholding taxes which pay for SS, Medicare and Medicaid. This could be done relatively painlessly by raising the cap on contributions. Additionally, increasing the top tax bracket while raising each bracket limit to account for inflation would be fair and simple. In addition long-term carried interest, which is income, should be taxed at the same rate, and with the same brackets, as income taxes.

However, Republicans want to eliminate many taxes and lower all taxes upon the wealthy, while increasing military spending. This would blow up the deficits tremendously. Is this a surprise? It shouldn't be, because every Republican president since Ford has lowered...