How to End Deficit Spending in Five Minutes and Why It Won’t Happen

Warren Buffett, in a July 7, 2011 interview with Becky Quick of CNBC, offered the following as a way to cure Congress’ out-of-control spending habits:

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”

Sounds good to me, but there are at least two problems with the wisdom from the “Oracle from Omaha”: (1) Congress likes spending money it doesn’t have and doesn’t have to personally pay back, and (2) most Americans like to be on the receiving end of money they don’t have to work to earn. These two issues are what keep Congress spending and the majority of people voting for politicians who keep spending.