It doesn't matter what we might get in 18 months. It only matters what we can get now. The poltical landscape is likely to be so different 18 months from now that we really can't predict what will happen. So we should be pressing for what we can get now, and then later press for what we can get at that time.
Personally, I were Boehner/Cantor/et al I'd press for something more like $500bil in cuts to THIS YEAR'S budget (and not the phantom cuts from before but for real cuts) in exchange for a $500bil increase in the debt ceiling. Then, in 6 months when that extra debt is used up, do the same thing again. And again. And again. By that 4th time there won't be a need to increase the debt ceiling as the budget will have been balanced. If we get a political climate favorable to larget cuts then we do that when it's possible. If we get a political climate that won't tolerate any more cuts, then we just hold the line on no debt increases. Eventually revenues will produce a surplus (probably within 2 years) which can be used to start to actually, you know, pay off the debts.
