[Aurelius]

"It's nuts. It's absurd and unjust, just as President Lincoln said."

Needless to say, you haven't convinced me. I can certainly agree that an equitable handling of the debt is a problem, but not an insurmountable one as you wish to conclude. And I think it is nuts to say that the people can be held hostage to the existence of common debt. It certainly would be a good reason to limit federal functions to the utmost (say like to those mandated by the Constitution) to absolutely minimize federal debt.

[Aurelius]

I might add that the people who objected to the evil schemes of A. Hamilton in the 1790's based their objection in large part on the fear that by assuming debts of the (Yankee) states (at the expense of southern states) the federal government would be setting the stage for a power grab; they were right.