"You want drama? The United States cannot pay its bills, and the longer we wait to do something about it, the deeper the hole will get and the more difficult it will be to climb out of it. We have a generational war brewing as baby boomers, generation Xers and millennials who are working get stuck with the tab for a federal debt that exceeds $14 trillion and have to plan for a future that might not include Medicare and Social Security, while current retirees are guaranteed benefits. And a financial calamity is almost certainly in the cards, as more and more baby boomers start retiring, unless a deficit-cutting deal is reached.
Against this backdrop, do you think most Americans are really worried that government will shut down for a few days, a week or even longer?
No. They're probably more worried that government will stay open and continue to spend money it doesn't have.
Or maybe, on second thought, most Americans don't care about that. Maybe our government is a reflection of our values.
In our own homes, and our own lives, too many of us buy things we don't need with money we don't have, and use credit we can't afford. We don't save anything for a rainy day or retirement. We worship at the altar of immediate gratification, and we kick difficult decisions down the road as far as possible."