The other side does not ask itself: How can we have a compromise that solves this problem? Instead they think: How can we demagogue this issue to fundraise, to win votes, to scare the crap out of people, to polarize the political climate and gain advantage from it? It's almost that the entire strategy now is how can we take any proposal that anyone makes, and completely demagogue it so it's not an actual debate/discussion anymore. And if that happens, we're never going to actually solve the problems of the country.

And to be fair, it's not just our political structure. The mentality of the American people is also a huge problem. Balancing the budget is quite simple, if we're not going to raise taxes (which is very unpopular) it means cutting social security, cutting Medicare/Medicaid, cutting Veterans benefits, and cutting military spending. However, that is also very unpopular - and no one is going to get elected running on that platform. Nonetheless, Social Security and Defense spending make up almost 40-50% of the budget, Medicaid and Medicare make up almost 25%. I get amused when I hear people who hate big government spending, but they want their Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Yeah, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Until the American people understand that everyone is going to have to make sacrifices, the budget will continue being a problem.