When I was flying small planes in the Congressional Flying Club, taking a break from the tribulations of tax and budget policy, the first thing you did when you encountered heavy weather was to turn off the autopilot.  You didn't want heavy, but dangerous, automatic corrections under those conditions.  No doubt, you would end up off course, but at least the wings were still attached.

The problem with automatic corrections for entitlements is that they would raise taxes and cut benefits at exactly the the wrong time in the business cycle.  In addition, our political leaders just won't accept automatic adjustments because heavy corrections would prove politically dangerous.

Most people, even in Washington, missed it last week when a present-law automatic correction, the "Medicare Funding Warning" under the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Act, forced President Bush to propose a Medicare spending cut to get the general revenue contribution back below 45%.  His proposed hike for the Medicare prescription drug copay was dead on arrival last week.  Suppose that hike had occurred automatically.  How long do you think it would take Congress to undo it during a recession?

Another problem with automatic corrections is that they just aren't nuanced enough to avoid unintended consequences.  If Medicare spending is rising too quickly because doctors are performing too many tests and procedures, the optimal solution is not to cut benefits across the board or to raise copays.  The optimal solution would be to correct medical practices.

I've learned from hard experience that there is no way to legislate political backbone or to automate human decisionmaking.  Whey you try, you live to regret the consequences.