"Irreversible national decline."

Jillian Bandes | December 08, 2009 9:59 AM

Following up on Meredith's post this morning, our debt is 10 trillion more than the total net worth of all Americans, according to an article in the Washington Post

. That's outrageous, but manageable, with structured debt repayments, and deficits of less than 3 percent. The problem is that no one's talking about repayments or small deficits.

"It's kind of an ouchless society. In other words, nothing's supposed to hurt," says Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group. "We can have new spending programs, but nobody's supposed to pay for them. We can have a war, but nobody pays for it. Tax cuts pay for themselves. You're not supposed to ask for any sacrifice."