Yuval Levin offers TIME readers an interesting take on the two major parties’ contrasting approaches to the federal government’s budget challenges.

The biggest reason for this long-term debt explosion is our system of entitlements. Republicans and Democrats in Washington both understand that reforming those entitlements (especially Medicare) is essential to making a real dent in the debt. But both also know that entitlement reform has always been deeply unpopular with voters.

That is where the parties’ readings of the public mood become crucial. Because they believe that voters are just as opposed to entitlement reform as ever, President Obama and the Democrats have basically declined to offer any solutions to the nation’s fiscal crisis. In his State of the Union address, the President said it was important to confront the problem of entitlement spending but did not propose to actually do so. The 2012 budget he released in February offered no reforms either and would accelerate the growth of debt.

Republicans, on the other hand, believe this is a fundamentally new moment in our politics and that political calculations need not lead to irresponsible policy. They have therefore committed to offering entitlement reforms in their 2012 budget, due out in early April. It seems that although they will be vague about Social Security, they will propose concrete reforms to Medicare. They are likely to leave untouched the benefits of Americans now over age 55. But for those who are younger, Medicare would be transformed into a system of vouchers that recipients would use to buy approved insurance of their choice.