I've heard that if they don't stop this master-debating, they'll both go blind.  No, wait - I got it wrong - it's the listening electorate that's going to go blind.  And deaf.  Am I so dumb and naive that these guys still aren't saying the answers that long-term are going to solve our problems?  Let me give you some real radical ideas:

• Balance the g**damn budget.  Responsible households have to do it.  The U.S. government should be forced to do it via a Constitutional amendment.  Federal borrowing from countries like China is simply untenable on so many levels:  national security, human rights, foreign policy - should I keep going?  Not to mention that continuing to borrow on our future is NOT good policy.
• Federal employees, both civilian and military, are not permitted to take any sort of "gift" from a third party.  This rule should be extended to Congress.  No more meals, gifts, vacations - NOTHING.  In my radical thinking, this should extend to campaign contributions as well.
• Abolish federal income taxes.  Yeah, you heard me.  Your paycheck instantly goes up, the annual hair-pulling of completing tax returns is no more, and a lot of IRS agents are looking for work.  So what does the federal government do for revenue?  Income taxes are replaced with a federal sales tax.  A mechanism would be created to keep taxes lower for lower income citizens.  For example, some items/categories might be exempted from taxation, such as essential food items.  This might be similar (but vastly expanded) to the items allowed in the WIC program.  Maybe this is what some of the out of work IRS agents could be in charge of keeping track of and publishing - I'm not completely heartless (sarcasm intended).
• Go a step further.  Abolish withholding for Social Security and Medicare and include that in the federal sales tax.  It's not like the federal government is taking the FICA money and investing it for us for the future.  Far from it.
• Get out of Iraq as soon as is safely possible.  This notion that "we shouldn't leave until we win" doesn't resonate for me.  How can we win the occupation of a country?  Define a "win" in this situation.  The various tribes in this region have been fighting each other for thousands of years.  The guy we want is in Afghanistan or Pakistan.  Iraq is too expensive, both in lives lost or permanently disabled and money spent.  This is not something we can "win".
• Stop subsidizing industries and countries when it doesn't make any sense.  We should be going through this list and making huge slashes.  For example, agribusiness subsidies when food prices are going up and the federal budget is out of control makes absolutely no sense.
• A law needs to be passed that anyone leaving elected public life cannot be a lobbyist - period.  In addition, a lobbyist can work for only one lobbying firm at a time, and for only one client at a time.

So that's enough ranting for now.  Some of this is pretty far left, some right.  But all of it angry.  The folks in Washington don't have the courage to make changes this radical.  It's too threatening to the way they do business - the status quo.  God forbid we make radical changes.