[pepsionice]

I believe the only way to end this mess...is a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget, with no options out for the President, or the Congress. When you ask for lesser qualified leadership, and the candidate-winner doesn’t know what a budget is....you, the voter, are really the cause of the mess to start with.

[Jacquerie]

As per the column, Daniel Boorstin, former Librarian of Congress was a superb historian.

I highly recommend his "The Americans, The Colonial Experience."

[gorush]

"I believe the only way to end this mess...is a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget..."

"Pseudo-events merely look important, because the media and the public agree to act as if they are."

...much like the constitution and paper money.

[oldplayer]

“The average Medicare couple pays $109,000 into the program and gets $343,000 in benefits out, according to the Urban Institute.”

This is the sort of justification the Marxist use all the time. “Look how much you get” sort of nonsense. The $343,000 benefit is inflated with fraud, graft, pork, administrative costs, etc. The average person might receive only $10,000 of true medical benefits for their money, had the government not been involved in the first place!

Oldplayer