Interesting thread.
Too bad so much of it reminds me of a tent revival meeting where a guy in a white suit is expected to come on stage in the middle of a big musical production and make everything okay.
PROTIP; the hero is dead and has been for decades, he was shot in the back by snake oil salesmen. And we bought it.
This problem has been building for decades. It very well may take decades to fix completely. In order to do that however, all players involved are going to have to forget about the R or the D that comes with their title. may I suggest we replace them with an A? For American, a forgotten breed that used to be upstanding, courageous, bold and involved.
There is hard work ahead, work, not political screeching. Real work and tough choices. Personally, I don't see how we can avoid affecting every single American to one degree or another. We have allowed ourselves to end up in a pretty deep ditch with no visible way out, except by working together and cutting a set of steps in the bank.
As a nation we need to curtail the billions or trillions we spend in other countries who decide to do what we want in exchange for our cash. We are out of cash. We need to stop exporting war, yesterday. Things like the Arts, PBS, etc should have to rely on private donations, not the government.
There are hundreds of things that can be done without negatively impacting us here, and those things should be on the table first. Then we move to the second layer, then the third...
Things need to be done in a business like manner, leaving emotions and pet projects outside the room.
Junkets, Air Force 1, private government helicopters, all of these things only help to isolate the decision makers from the reality that those of us trying to get by must face on a daily basis. I want the decision makers to be out here with us, serving instead of ruling. They are not our overlords, they work for us, the American people. As such we are their bosses, not their servants.
Hell, we have a program that is so big that we don't even know how much it costs us, the HLS, the TPA and domestic spying. A hot sharp knife to its scrotum may pay some huge dividends. Why is it a sacred cow?
Point is, there are things that can and should be done first, and they should be done soon, before the end of the year.
American is crumbling folks, and not just our national infrastructure, but perhaps more importantly, our national sense of who we are.