No Free Lunch, Budgetary Constraints, and Gratuitous Promotion of Family Members

My father has a piece up at the Oxford University Press Blog arguing that both major political parties in the US are pretending to the public that there are painless solution to US budgetary problems. I'm not convinced that the current federal budget situation is as dire as he makes it out to be although I do agree that the state and local budgets in many areas are in very bad shape. However, the essential point seems spot on. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are willing to be honest with the voters. And this is clearly not a good situation. I don't see any quick resolution to these issues. I will however be slightly partisan in saying that it is clear that some groups are being more unhelpful than others and that the Tea Partiers are clearly one of the most unhelpful groups in question.