Until someone starts talking about raising revenues (taxing the wealthy, not giving special rates to the wealthy who don't rely on an actual salary -e.g. cap gains tax rate is 15%, working for a living is higher than that), etc, I don't take them seriously.

The lion's share of the federal budget is Medicare, Social Security, salaries and pensions (and other mundane things that keep government running). By comparison, the military isn't that much. So when I see proposals about cutting PBS -which you'd have to use a magnifying glass to see in a pie chart of the federal budget-, I know the speaker isn't serious (or is genuinely clueless, but I give them the benefit of the doubt and say "not serious").

Taxes must go up. There is no other answer. Removing M-care and SS is not an option (politically, or practically). Cutting the military won't save enough, and in the present world is unwise anyway. Raise taxes. Now.