Wessel on the Fiscal Challenge

In today's Wall Street Journal, David Wessel hits the nail on the head (as he often does):

the political reality is that a Republican president can hope to restrain spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid only if he can bring some Democrats along. And the only way to bring Democrats along is to put taxes on the table -- maybe not increasing tax rates, but raising revenues by simplifying the tax code, closing loopholes, targeting corporate subsidies, broadening the tax base or whatever brings in more money.

Let's take aim at the state-and-local tax deduction, the mortgage-interest deduction, and the exclusion of employer-provided health insurance. (And have I mentioned gasoline taxes lately?) But let's keep tax rates low.