[mnehring]

Good point, totalitarians thrive on crisis to gain power. If the country went bankrupt, it wouldn’t repeal any of these programs, it would just make everyone demanding more and more programs to fix the problem, resulting in big brother controlling more and more to ‘fix’ it.

[LRS]

I can't help thinking of the 1965 movie of “Dr. Zhivago”. Yuri (Dr. Zhivago) is foolish enough to think he can quit being a doctor. The party deems otherwise, and off he goes to parts unknown (pay attention doctors who think they will just quit!) This after he returns home to discover that the state has confiscated his wife's family's property for the good of the people (that scene kept flowing through my brain yesterday as I was filling out the census.) None of this programs will be repealed with a bankruptcy of the nation. They will just use it an excuse to continue redistribution...

[rlmorel]

Yep.