Actually, Allen, what "we characters" (a little sarcasm there on your part) need to do is what the Gingrich "Contract with America" Congress did in 1995-96, and use back-to-back shut downs to force a conservative version of Welfare Reform that put time limits on welfare, and made 23 million people go back to work.  Did it cost them the 2000 election?  No, Bush won.

Clinton had vetoed that bill twice, until the GOP refused to cave on the shutdown, which lasted 57 days.  The GOP used to have cajones.

That was, by the way, that last time we had at or near balanced budgets, and we had them for six years in a row.  Last time we saw 4%+ GDP growth, too.