The premise of the thread is that we have to "negotiate". What if enough people took the Nancy Reagan approach and just said no?
I don't think your answer was simple, brother Tao, just not thought out. If you would have posted what I posted, I probably would have had the same initial thought as you did. And, of course, big brother would definitely try to force compliance.
Good thread RCG, sorry to see almost get hijacked. I would like to say that, as a fiscal conservative, I am a bit worried about the rising debt/liability. But, we need to keep things in perspective. If you look at the complete balance sheet, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR for short, you will see that we have over $200 Trillion in Net Worth. It would be $14 Trillion higher if we had not debt. Now, does this mean our level of debt is good? Of course not. But since we have about 15 times that in net worth, we are not as in a mess as many say. Of course, we can't just start selling off assets to pay these debts, and we sure don't want to continue paying interest, even at these artificially low rates. Settle down, cut spending x times more than any damn tax increase, and repeat. Regarding SS, we could raise the age or the annual limits, either on will help. But, I agree with CO who says that SS should be addressed separately from the overall debt mess.
Hey brother mrbill, how about no tax increases, and cut the outrageous drunken spending of the D.C. whores and not allow any raiding of the social security fund?
I am outraged at all excess spending. We have some solid areas that can be cut easily. Foreign Aid needs to be addressed, the war spending, but we need to stay strong, and don't need a bunch of unemployed military personnel to add to that problem. Cut all tax subsidies to big corps who are making over xxxx amount each year, they have proven they don't need any help. And, yes, stay the hell out of our SS.
If we all could listen to one another, without making quick judgement calls, we might just be able to work things out.