Ask the Expert: Michael Linden on the federal deficit

What should we be doing now to address our growing deficit?

Well, job number one has to be job creation, actually, not deficit reduction. In the near term, deficits are actually helping us get out of this economic morass we've been in. In the long term, we do need to get our deficits down, and that's going to take a mix of spending reductions and more revenue.

What would a reasonable and effective budget plan look like?

In the long run, a reasonable and effective budget plan is going to have to do two basic things. One is, it's going to have to get a hold of some of the mandatory spending growth that has been plaguing our budget for some years now. The Affordable Care Act, also known as the comprehensive health reform bill, is going to start to do that. On the other side, we've had historically low revenue over the past decade, and we're going to have to have a little more revenue to meet the growing needs of an aging population.

How can we start the process of getting to balance?

The first step in getting to balance is recognizing the scale of the problem. There are no quick fixes, there are no simple solutions here. This is a big problem over the next 10 years, and it's going to require serious discussion about national priorities. How do we raise the revenue that we need to pay for the things we want? How do we trim some of the things that we like, but don't need as much anymore?