OPC, as long as our Congress is inhabited by people like you and Ron, not much will get done. Opposite ends and unwillingness to compromise, that's the hallmark of politics these days. One rarely hears about those in the middle, perhaps they've given up. The headlines are dominated by the extremes.

Ron may sound like Obama, but he did win the Presidency easily enough 4 years ago, and is still the choice of about 1/2 the people in the country, so perhaps you need to walk in someone else's shoes for awhile.

While I might disagree with Ron somewhat, I probably am closer to his position than yours.

Health care is maybe the biggest thing that will take us down (but there are plenty of other things with strong supporting rolls like debt, including Fed State and local obligations under pensions and HEALTHCARE BENEFITS.

To get us out of where we've gotten ourselves, much pain lies in store. I would start by some compromises. I would start to cut some spending, and I would make an example of welfare cheats (mandatory prison terms), so as to discourage others from cheating - we just don't have the ability to police it all, I think we need to scare potential cheats into not cheating. On the other side, I would propose an annual tax on all retirment or otherwise tax-deferred accounts of a certain percentage, say 1%, of the value of all such accounts over the amount of, say, $750,000 per individual or $1,500,000 for a married couple.

Of course, certain tax loopholes should be closed as Romney and Ryan advocate, too.

Even when money is "wasted" by government (at least if it's spent on US projects or causes), it gets into the hands of US citizens, one way or the other, and most of those citizens spend the money and keep the economy moving. It's the profits that don't ever get into circulation, but are put aside in great amounts for a rainy day or for heirs, where the issue lies. No one needs $5,000,000 in retirement funds. It's not nice to take $35,000 per year away from such people, but this country is in big trouble and it needs help.

My guess is if some of the "47%" saw this happening, most wouldn't complain so much if they were asked to contribute a small amount toward "saving" America.

None of this is ideal, far from it, but this country is going down the path of many European countries, lucky for us we can print the reserve currency, or we'd be Spain!