Two weeks ago, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (Super Committee) failed to meet its legislative mandate of cutting $1.2 trillion from federal spending over 10 years....

The United States Congress is debating two important principles.

There is the idea that a strict deadline forces action. (Or, more accurately, as the science fiction writer Douglas Adams once said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”)...