Let 'em do the math

Let the spending cuts begin.

I am looking forward to seeing what the Republicans propose, other than repealing the health care law.

That was, after all, what Republicans campaigned on. Ohio's John Boehner, soon to be House speaker, promised "a new approach that hasn't been tried before in Washington—by either party. It starts with cutting spending instead of increasing it." Retiring Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) says Democrats should back a freeze on federal hiring and pay. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) says, "We're going to be giving on spending."

Now he says that?

But as Republican spending cutters move from wooing voters to legislating, they confront two realities: Cutting government spending in general is popular; specific, substantial spending cuts are not. And bringing down the deficit by spending cuts alone, particularly cuts in annually appropriated domestic spending, is, well, arithmetically challenging.