All Debt Isn't Federal

In the debate over the national debt and the federal budget deficit, much of the discuss seems to assume that the Federal Government, as a spendthrift, is some kind of horrible exception to the American way of life.  In fact, nothing could be further than the truth.

Note, in particular, how much of our debt is business debt, and how much of that debt was build by the spate of leveraged buy-outs that began during the Reagan years.  This merely serves to underscore an unpleasant and unpopular truth:  spendthriftiness was the basis and the essence of the so-called Reagan "revolution."

Why is our government a spendthrift?  Simple.  We are a nation of spendthrifts.  We hate everyone's excessive, unfunded spending, except when it benefits us.  This is why people are much bigger on cutting spending in the abstract than they are in the particular.  And, especially when it comes to the sequester, even the GOP is not immune to this type of "thinking."

And, until that changes, We the People will remain on the slippery slope to bankruptcy.