The conventional wisdom about balancing the federal budget is that it will require both tax increases and speding cuts. 

That's simply not true.  The 1992 Clinton campaign argued that the budget could not be balanced.  They put the budget on Compuserve or one of those old-time online services, and, to demonstrate the truth of their assertion, challenged perspective voters to balance the budget.  I had it balanced in 2 or 3 years, and the computer program wouldn't let me cut many things I wanted to cut.

In short, the question is not what is possible in theory, but what we have the political will to do.  The more readily we accept the conventional wisdom, the harder it will be to cut back the size and scope of government.