Crazy Rich asks me to be his secretary.

Third time around, the Republicans say they mean business. But when asked how they will close the deficit, most explain they will cut taxes — which will only reduce government revenues further and increase the debt. Others, like Dick Armey, chairman of the Tea Party affiliate FreedomWorks, say they would eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, whose budget is $167.5 million, approximately 0.01% of the federal deficit.   OK, but is a start and a reduction of government involvement in our lives, so why not start with small reductions, Crazy Rich?


On the Oct. 31 edition of 60 Minutes, Stockman weighed in on this madness. "We've demonized taxes," he said. "We've created almost the idea that they're a metaphysical evil ... It's rank demagoguery. We should call it for what it is. If these [Republicans] were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn't come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion. So to stand before the public and rub raw this antitax sentiment, the Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves."   No, we understand that you a JUST interested in tax increases.

I would suggest three litmus tests to gauge whether the Republicans are serious about deficits: 1) Are they prepared to stop with the tax cuts? No, the deficits has ballooned because your party has gone into spending hyperdrive and it will only get worse if we feed the beast.  Because the deficit will keep widening with more of them. 2) Are they prepared to cut middle-class entitlements? Because the only places to find real reductions in federal-government spending are in the large, popular programs like Medicare and Social Security. Yes and if we do are you willing to resist the temptation to trot out starving Grandma's?  3) Are they ready to take on the Pentagon? Because at $717 billion, defense spending — more than half of all discretionary spending — has to be trimmed. Yes!  What part of we want to reign in spending do you not get?

These are not political statements. They are mathematical ones, and it is on understanding math, not politics, that the third Republican revolution now rests.  Do your math formulas have minus signs?