Extending Debt Talks Beyond the Next Election

The reason for extending the debt talks beyond the election year is to prevent a repeat of the contentiousness that Congress and the President is now experiencing, except that the discussion does not have to be contentious when the common goals are to cut spending and balance the budget.

An effective way to account for responsible spending accurately is to balance the books daily, or continuously with an IBM mainframe. With numbers clearly on the table, both President Obama and members of Congress can look at the books at any moment and discuss the need for cutting spending if necessary, and allocate the cuts by predetermined percentages.

If allocation is the point of contention and a compromise cannot be reached before the next pay day, then nobody, including staff members, in both the executive and the legislative branches will get paid until one is reached and for everyday past the deadline, each person's salary will decrease by ten (10%) percent per day, and when a negative number is reached, then each of them will start owing the government. The amount owed will be subtracted from the next paycheck, and the next and so on.

I think that is a good way to bring the concept of a deficit home quickly to everyone involved.