Congress may have avoided certain disaster on Tuesday, but the plan that was passed does little to get the country back to a functional system of budgeting that doesn't involve chronic deficits. So what would that take? Republicans will have to recognize that raising taxes on high-income earners is a necessity. Democrats will need to agree to budget cuts and entitlement savings. That may sound impossible, but recent history demonstrates it isn't. In California , just four years ago, despite fervent partisanship the equal of that in Washington
