Why Would You Want to Balance The Budget In Ten Years?

Lots of buzz on the Internet today about the House Republican pledge to write a plan to balance the bduget in 10 years without raising taxes. Most of the talk has focused on skepticism that this is mathematically workable. But I hope someone gets the chance to ask them a simpler question—why? It's generally better to think about debt and deficit problems on the tax side than the spending side. When it comes to spending, really nobody cares about debt or deficits. What happens is people disagree about whether a given aircraft carrier or highway project or benefit to low-income parents or farm subsidy is worthwhile. Taxes are another matter. So this is the question for John Boehner and Paul Ryan whenever they do unveil their balanced budget plan: Why not make taxes lower instead of balancing the budget? The budget will, presumably, cut spending down to a level that conservatives think is...