The experts over at the Concord Coalition do good work on the federal budget. they are budget hawks and well worth listening to.
They note that doing nothing will balance the federal budget (excluding interest costs) by 2014.
Doing nothing unleashes automatic tax increases and smaller spending cuts. Past tax reductions are scheduled to expire as is the "doc fix" which temporarily increases Medicare payments to physicians.
The automatic tax hikes may be part of the reason that SuperCommittee Dems didn't negotiate.
Concord is promoting strict pay-as-you-go rules as a one path toward a budget fix. It's a piece Washington needs - crisis or no.
http://www.concordcoalition.org/issue-briefs/2011/1122/super-committee-gave-congress-cant
