I post LearnLiberty videos on the blog a lot, but there's a reason for it: they're really good. The above video is no exception, and makes a mockery of the public debate around the US election, which has focused on trivial areas like PBS funding (0.012% of the federal budget; or three F-22 fighter jets). I'd love to do an equivalent for the UK, where the mandatory spending areas, particularly "entitlements" like health and pensions spending, are the vast majority of expenditure.

Prof Davies's point is critically important. Simple, straightforward cuts will not do -- we need a fundamental change in the government's role that removes it from provision of all but the most basic income support, and even then in the form of direct cash transfers, not government-run schools and hospitals. For this reason, I'm a little tired of the focus on specific, media-friendly spending cuts, which usually amount to a drop in the ocean but suit the nature of rolling, adversarial media coverage. I don't just want to get rid of the deficit, I want to cut nearly everything the government currently does.