A handy survival kit for voters

Public Agenda, a nonpartisan, nonprofit (somewhat left-leaning) organization with offices in New York and Washington, has put out an earnest, cleverly packaged "Voter’s Survival Kit" for the U.S. elections in November, which you can download in zipped format and view as a PDF.

Whoever put this guide together does a nice job of simplifying complex issues without dumbing them down. Regarding the federal budget, they argue that the next administration and Congress have only three responsible options (their words here):

• Balance the budget as quickly as possible and make sure it’s balanced from here on out, including raising taxes to cover what we spend.
• Immediately focus on Social Security and Medicare, including raising taxes and fees to recipients and trimming benefits for recipients down the road.
• Keep taxes as low as possible, but reduce the size of government by making major cuts in popular areas such as defense, healthcare, education and higher education.

Here’s what I think the next president and Congress will actually do:

• Lower income taxes, quietly raise other taxes while hoping nobody notices, spend billions cleaning up the mortgage mess, increase current discretionary spending levels, kick the can down the road about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and continue to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from Asia.

Anyone want to make a bet?