Jonathan Chait is absolutely right:
The larger picture is this: the budget debate we're having has virtually nothing to do with the budget deficit, and only a little to do with the size of government. It's a debate about a small slice of the federal budget, and it's happening because Republicans want to cut the size of government without coming out against actual government programs.Reducing the deficit would be easy: just raise taxes. But since the Republicans care infinitely more about taxes than about the deficit, neither will happen.