"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards... We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation... if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." -Sam Adams
I think the best thing about the debt ceiling debate was that it opened people's eyes to the realities of our fiscal problems and the limits of gov't. More people are (finally!) engaged. For example, how many people knew before that the federal gov't sends out 100 million checks per month to federal employees, entitlement recipients, and vendors? Or that despite our own debt and deficit problems, we are kind enough to guarantee some of the debt of Israel and Egypt?
And more people are waking up to the reality that the argument over whether we cut $1.8 trillion or $4 trillion over the next 10 years is downright silly. Both are meaningless and are but a small downpayment of what is to come.
This great graphic from Businessweek highlights just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Over $200 trillion, in fact. This massive disconnect between expected spending (and entitlement receiving!) and lack of revenues will be addressed eventually, and likely the hard way.
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