We should be concrete, and reject false equivalencies. The signature Democratic legislative achievement in the last decade was the Affordable Care Act ("Obamac

We should be concrete, and reject false equivalencies. The signature Democratic legislative achievement in the last decade was the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), which came with deeply unpopular pay-fors: "Cadillac" taxes hitting union health plans, the "net investment income" tax hitting high earners, and others. The signature Republican legislative achievement in the last decade was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("Trump tax cuts"). This was chiefly deficit-financed (no pay-fors), excepting a popular repeal of the individual mandate and an unpopular-but-deferred middle-class tax increase 10 year later. Democrats paid for their stuff, Republicans didn't, and Republicans won the messaging battle. "Keep the budget balanced" is terrible advice from a political perspective. It only gives space for the next administration to spend more money.