Everyone says they could balance the budget if they were in charge.  Few understand what would be involved.  I just played a neat simulator that actually allowed me to explore what different policies would do.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to post the results, but I did a screen-capture hatchet job:

Click for a full view.  My choices — like anyone’s — probably wouldn’t please everyone but I don’t think they’re monstrous.  A guiding principle was to avoid adding much new until the current spending is more under control.  In reality, I know that government should be countercyclical, so this set of choices might actually be less than wise.  But it was still a good thought experiment.