Balance This!

So I'm watching Meet The Press today and listening to Jim DeMint (R-SC) blather on about his truly idiotic balanced budget amendment that he's been championing for a while now.  After I stopped laughing, it occurred to me that maybe, not everyone realizes why it's a stupid idea, even if it is exceedingly inane.  What does the balanced budget amendment actually do, and why is it stupid?

Strange Deficit Magic

With all of this debt ceiling shenanigans going on, and all the hemming and hawing about the deficit, it's worth it to take a look at how all of this stuff actually functions.  What does it mean, really?  Why do we care?  How many angels can dance upon the head of a pin, and so on?  I've been thinking about it a lot recently (taking time away from more important things, like the NHL offseason).  Today though, I read this post by Yglesias which put a lot of what I was trying to say into shape...