OK, so we need to raise the national debt ceiling. Here is my proposal – drag it out until the 2012 elections. Here is how.

Each month allow the government to borrow money for a very narrow item or program, say Medicare. As part of the price for giving the White House a 1-2 years worth debt ceiling increase for Medicare alone, we pass Ryan’s fixes to Medicare.

Then we look at the EPA, and we agree the White House can borrow some money to fund the EPA for 2 years, but it will require suspension of all this CO2 nonsense and investigations into the soundness of the now disproved AGW theories.

Every month raise the debt to keep one element of government alive for the next 2 years – at a price.

Don’t ever throw out a debt ceiling rise that covers more than one area of government. Require the Dems to make the case as to why we cannot cut wasteful, non-producing and marginal programs (or trade them in as block grants to the states to implement).

We need this hammer for two years, don’t sell it too quickly.

Update: And this is why my proposal is not a political game, but something we must do before our nation’s economy collapses again:

(1) The idea that we will have anything like currently anticipated entitlement payouts plus currently anticipated tax rates is a fantasy;
(2) This gap is enormous, and represents the “mother of all bubbles”;
(3) Our debt situation means that we need to address it quite soon or face a funding crisis; and therefore
(4) The correct primary metric for evaluating anybody’s plan to do this is what practical measures it puts in place now and how much additional time this creates for us prior to this crisis, rather than theoretical and unenforceable promises about the distant future.

It is way past time to get serious folks.