Conservatives say that the government should be “run like a business”. Have you ever heard of a business that was over-leveraged and in debt whose turnaround plan consisted of cutting revenue? No? Neither have I.

So let’s have a balanced approach to reducing the deficit and not get ourselves into the pickle that European Union countries now find themselves — radical reductions lead to radical economic meltdowns. In the U.S., the federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services. So if you are really business friendly, why would you wish reduced income on businesses whose primary customer may be the government?