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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs
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To: RMF who wrote (36674)9/2/2009 5:17:46 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 71588
 
and our national debt would seem to qualify us for bankruptcy by normal accounting standards

Not really. We can afford to cover this debt. Its a cost, all around its a negative thing, but not an unsustainable one.

The bigger problem that the debt is the political promises and laws for future spending (I give the former top billing because they are in a sense more important, the fact that there is a law calling for payouts in Social Security or Medicare can be changed by a single vote of congress, the problem is not the law as much as the expectations, promises, and political forces.), but future spending promises aren't the same as debt. There is no enforceable obligation in the normal sense of the term, the way there is with federal debt, or with most private sector pensions and insurance contracts.
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