• Share  Sculpture of a bread line, at the FDR Memorial in
Washington, D.C. Some rights reserved by Jeremy.collins.  A time
to spend  "In these tough times, Americans are tightening their
belts—and their government needs to do the same." Versions of
this line have enjoyed bipartisan popularity lately. President
Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and other leaders from both
parties share the talking point. It's a good applause line: it's
pithy, full of populist empathy, easy to understand. It's also
exactly wrong.  While partisan gridlock over raising the debt
ceiling has taken the nation to the brink of disaster, the
differences between Democrats and Republicans on the issue are
largely political, not substantive. The consensus view is that
the budget deficit is the country's most pressing economic
problem and that cuts to government spending are the primary
solution. The policy questions on the table boil down to just
this: how drastically should government spending be cut—and
should the deficit also be reduc