Hmmm. Maybe there's actually something to this idea of doing nothing about the deficit, just letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Because remember what that looks like for the deficit:

The idea seems to be finally getting some traction, if you can judge a news analysis in the New York Times as traction.

WASHINGTON — The latest Congressional failure to agree on a plan for balancing the government’s books could yield a surprising result: a sharp reduction in annual federal deficits, larger than anything contemplated by the special panel that reached its fruitless finale on Monday. But the absence of an agreement also threatens to significantly slow growth in an already ailing economy by raising taxes on almost everyone while reducing government spending on almost everything. Tax cuts passed in the Bush administration will expire at the end of 2012. By law, the panel’s failure triggers new caps on spending, cutting $1.2 trillion from the military, education, health care and other priorities over 10 years beginning next fall. The combined impact of higher tax rates and less spending would reverse the growth of annual deficits beginning in 2013, reducing by more than half the current $1.3 trillion gap between annual revenue and spending. That has inverted the normal reality, in which spending rises inexorably unless Congress musters the political will to impose cuts. Now, although both parties say they are committed to more gradual approaches, an agreement is required to avoid the fiscal equivalent of shock therapy.

Of course, this means ending all of the Bush tax cuts, including those for the middle class (and no, Sen. John Kerry, $500,000 a year isn't middle class). That gets harder and less politically popular, though probably still much more popular than the regressive Republican plan that would do away with many of the tax credits that help middle and lower income taxpayers.

But there's no arguing that getting rid of the tax cuts (and ending the wars) would deal with the deficit. With that put away, finally, maybe we could keep the focus on what matters: jobs, fixing income inequality and dealing with the housing crisis. A blogger can dream.