Margaret Thatcher used to punctuate her speeches by declaring: “There is no alternative!” So common was this phrase that it earned an acronym: TINA.
The entitlement reforms being proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan are going to be difficult to achieve, and such cuts are inevitably painful.
But there is an alternative: We can forgo those painful cuts, and all we have to do in exchange is enact a tax increase — of 88 percent.
Cut spending or raise taxes 88 percent. It’s not that there is no alternative. But if Democrats are opposed to the former, they are running on the latter.