“Why put off what you've go to do? Let’s get the job done - we need to get a plan to manage down the debt and deficit,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) tells The Daily Ticker on the sidelines of the Milken Institute 2013 Global Conference.

The big debate is about how to do that and when. There's also a question about what the House, Senate, and president can realistically agree to when it comes to a fiscal roadmap for the country (or, arguably, anything other than FAA furloughs).

As we gear up for a budget debate with three competing blueprints and another debt ceiling deadline, Congressman Cantor lays out a couple of cost-saving ideas where he thinks Republican lawmakers could find common ground with the White House. In the accompanying interview, he cites ideas to combine Medicare Parts A and B (hospitals and doctor services) and to reform the federal pension system and bring it more in line with the private sector.

The New York Times reports that Cantor is attempting to

For years the most exceptional of corporate brand names, Apple Inc. (AAPL) is now the quintessential company of the current bull market, relying on the kindness of the bond market to fund an aggressive stock buyback. This maneuver is perfectly in sync with today’s financial-engineering fashion.

A year ago Apple stood astride the financial markets, attaining the highest market value ever as it topped $600 billion. The iJuggernaut’s fabulous profitability, stupendous share-price gains and cult-inspiring products nearly consumed all the capitalist oxygen in a world of muted economic growth, range-trapped stock indexes and plodding technological advances.

More than 90% of brokerage analysts were recommending the stock, it was the most heavily owned name by hedge funds and, at its $702 peak in September 2012, was up 70% for 2012 versus less than 15% for the other 499 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 combined.

A well-known comeuppance

Then came the well-known comeuppance, with stiffer competition in mobile phones, disenchantment with Apple’s new-product slate and an inefficient balance sheet draining growth expectations from Apple shares, which have lost more than 35% of their value in seven months.

In response, Apple CEO Tim Cook and his board have acceded to the pleas of some on Wall Street to liberate some of the value of its huge but massively unproductive $140 billion in idle cash.

A regular dividend payer since a year ago, currently at an increased $12.20-per-share annual rate, Apple is now completing the largest corporate debt offering in history, tapping the pliant capital markets for $17 billion in debt at vanishingly low interest rates.