An Interesting Time Suck

I am going to try to reduce the deficit and fix the budget of the United States of America this weekend. When I'm done, I am going to put my money where my mouth is.  I'm going to publish my ideas where my persona is on display, here in The Burrow, and I'm going to post my solution on the New York Times Magazine's website.  

I love the puzzles in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.  I always finish the crossword (or come real close) and sometimes the other puzzle on the page.  I like the thought of an anonymous competition with really smart people all over the globe.  I do them in ink, and I don't use the dictionary.  Human life-lines are acceptable (TBG feigns aggravation if too many quarters of football go by without my interrupting to wonder about the identity of the 1953 AL Cy Young winner) but for the most part it's me vs the boxes, one clue at a time.  

Thanks to Ronni Bennett over at Time Goes By I came to a different kind of puzzle this week.  It's called The Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget and, with broad strokes and not a lot of flexibility, I'm going to try to reduce the deficit over the next few decades while still maintaining some semblance of government involvement in .... in..... well, that, I think, is going to be the challenge.  

I've been playing with the puzzle as I've been thinking about this post, and I have to admit that it's very satisfying to click on a box and watch the deficit get smaller.  On some level, it's no more than a video game.  Cue Sen. Everett Dirksen's  "A billion here, a billion there, soon you're talking real money" as I realize that there is hardly anything I can do to make a significant difference.  

But, I am willing to try.  I wish the puzzle let me take a more nuanced approach (what if I want to cut Foreign Aid by 60% instead of the 50% they allow?) but it's the NYTimes and they have a point to make and I guess I'm going to have to play along.  I've been reading the Wall Street Journal in lieu of The Gray Lady for the last few years, so I'm expecting to be amused by the 16 Ways to Cut the Deficit their experts propose.  But I'm going to read them, and think about them and talk about them with the smart people in my life and I'm going to solve the budget crisis. 

I am willing to take  personal responsibility for the decisions I make and the actions I take.  I'm going to be able to defend my positions or admit that I haven't a clue so I'm relying on experts.  I'm not going to hide behind a committee or a party or a political machine which is heavily invested in little more than my re-election.  It's going to be the budget and me, up close and personal. 

Do you want to try, too?  Click through this sentence to get to the puzzle. 

I'll be back with my answers on Monday if you want to play show and tell.