The following clip is a preview of just how effective a Republican-controlled Congress might be in reducing the deficit. The first thing they will try to do is extend all the Bush tax-cuts. Then, so they say, they will ruthlessly cut expenditures. Of course, military spending will not be cut. And Medicare will not be cut, given the Tea party opposition to any cuts there.

So exactly where will they make cuts? Just listen to former-HP CEO, Carly Fiorina, running for the Senate in California. She promises huge cuts in spending but cannot offer an example of a single entitlement expenditure she would cut.

Here is a similar prediction by David Frum, former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush. The entire article is worth a careful read.

While Republicans have been campaigning hard against Democratic overspending, they have scored even more points by attacking the one example of Democratic budget-cutting: the reductions in Medicare spending in the Democrats’ health reform.

Boehner has proposed that the first order of business for a new House majority would be a vote to repeal the Obama Medicare cuts. Unlike the tax vote, this vote could actually go somewhere. And even if it somehow fizzles out — if the bill vanishes into the Senate or is shunted aside by the president — Boehner’s proposal signals what is to come:

Republicans are coming to depend more and more heavily on the support of older voters. (Back in 1988, voters over 60 were the most pro-Democratic group in the electorate, now over-65s are by far the most Republican.)