>>Actually, spending cuts will close the gap, if you cut the big items. SS, Medicare & Medicaid are unsustainable. Cradle-to-grave centralized infantalization of the nation is unsustainable. Eventually you stop. One way or another.
Except that "spending cuts" in health are equated with "death panels" as some so charmingly presented it. In the end, healthcare always is about rationing. Until the electorate grasps that, the problem is deferred for another term and the opportunity to start addressing issues is frittered away.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1