@andrew@law That's not unreasonable, given that Americans, and our politicians, would much prefer to enact cool policies w/o actually paying for them. Better to run up deficits and let our kids worry about the bill.
I wonder if taxes could be made revenue neutral - impose a gas tax which, say, brings in $5bn in revenue. Then distribute that revenue per capita back to the public, so someone who actually does cut back makes money, and someone who doesn't at least breaks even.