This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, May 3rd, 2018.

I'm Caleb Brown.

If we were serious about federal spending restraint,

what would we do?

From entitlements to military spending, to tax cuts, the pressure to spend more

and create ever larger deficits seems irresistible. Kurt Couchman is Vice President for

public policy and Defense Strategies.

We spoke last month about getting the Fed's fiscal house in order.

We got a little taste of budgetary restraint in the middle of the Obama years with this sequester.

And at various times, congressional Republicans and President Obama were both really in favor of it.

And then at various times,

congressional Republicans and Barack Obama

were not in favor of it.

And it seems that whatever appetite there is

for getting at a balanced budget, it's almost always fleeting and depending on who's in power and who wants to move more sludge through the process, they're either for it or

against it.

So if we were serious about getting to a credible requirement for a balanced spending in Congress.

Where should we start?

Well, first we have to recognize the problem.

It's common knowledge, I think it's common knowledge at this point,

that the federal budget is unsustainable.

And with the newest CBO budget and economic outlook, we're

...