Andrew Sullivan responds to Freddie DeBoer’s post on debt, deficits, and “seriousness”:

The current math simply demands either massive tax hikes or massive benefit cuts in the future. Adjusting now will make the future, relative suffering less rather than more painful. And like Megan, I'd like to see the cuts focus on those who are most able to afford it. To use the obvious example: why should we be sending Warren Buffet a social security check?

A very large majority of Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling, according to polling done for The Hill:

Seventy-seven percent of likely GOP voters and 64 percent of independent voters said they don’t want the debt ceiling to be raised. Even among Democrats, more oppose raising the ceiling (46 percent) than support it (42 percent).

Winning the congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling is a crucial test for the president. House and Senate Republicans are using the vote, which must take place soon, in an effort to secure deep spending cuts from the White House.

Does Andrew Sullivan really believe this?

The debt is obviously the most pressing issue at hand; this commission represents the best hope in a long time to tackle it.

Looking down the legislative schedule, nearly everyone recognizes that a vote expected this spring to raise the country's debt ceiling will be an opportunity for posturing from critics of government debt and a test of the GOP's ability to govern responsibly. Raising the debt limit will allow the government to borrow enough money to fund its operations. Putative Speaker John Boehner is already encountering problems as he maneuvers his caucus toward the vote.

Yesterday's New York Times featured a story about Raj Date, a Treasury official working to start up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after a spell as an influential financial-reform advocate. (I briefly profiled Date when he joined the administration.) The headline pretty much sums up the lack of news in the story: "Adviser to Consumer Agency Had Role in Lending." Heavens!

The central economic problem right now in the United States is that we spend more than we make in a variety of different ways -- in the federal budget, through consumer debt, in trade with other countries. The process of shedding debt and increasing savings is the natural response to the financial crisis and recession, but it's not a very pleasant one, since those cutbacks have all kinds of bad macroeconomic side effects: Less spending and investment, public and private, means less demand, which means slower growth and fewer jobs.