It is most likely past time for that. There are too many folks in the country (legal and illegal alike) that have their hands out for governement (federal, state, and local) largess.
That is not likely to stop. Promises built on "future solvency" (Medicare, pensions, Medicaide, 401Ks, Social Security and the like) are not going to be able to be kept.
Simply (perhaps over simplified), folks need funds on which to live. There is some "cutting back" that can be done, but folk's basic needs must be met.
So...in a short while, folks who thought and had been promised that there would be a "nest egg" won't have one. Or have very little left of one. They will have markedly less money with which to cover basic necessities. Prices continue to rise for these necessities. Basic necessities for things like medical care, housing, food, basic utilities will reach a tipping point of being too expensive.
Survival techniques such as selling possessions like precious metals, houses, cars and the like (tho who will offer to purchase them and at what price is certainly debatable), moving extended families into single housing units, attempting to grow or raise part of one's food requirements will be tried; however, some or all may well be less than successful or fail entirely.
As time progresses, there will be less and less revenue moving into local, state, and federal coffers. Conversely, there will be more and more demands for support and services from the populace. This leads (and has lead) to the borrowing (using future income streams as "collateral") of money from various "lenders". The lenders are not stupid. They see a country that cannot or will not control itself, deepens it's debt with - at best - weak to non-existent collateral, and shows no signs whatsoever of being able to pay back even the interest on the debt...never mind the principle.
So...possible sources of "borrowed money" have begun to dry up, or the interest rate on available funds becomes extreme to the point of not being able to get a loan.
This is where the US stands right now. RIGHT NOW.
Cures? Will lessening the growth curve of debt be enough? NO!
Will holding debt at present levels be enough? NO!
What it will take is a massive drop in the principle owed to the "new owners" of America.
To begin to pay off principle, funds that now are being borrowed must cease. Funds that are being used to pay for "benefits" must be massively reduced. What is "massive"? Try 35% to 45% decreases annually.
Now...what local, state, or federal politician (what business leader or union official for that matter) is going to stand up before the "promised" and say; "We're going to have to break our promises to you! The money you counted on...the services you counted on - are simply no longer there. Good bye and good luck."
You thought France had "riots"??? The upheaval in the US when these "announcements" come (as surely they must) will make what occured in France and Greece (remember Greece) look like....well....like tea parties.
I always thought that if the US ever "lost", it would take come kind of country to actually beat us. And if we fought the good fight and still lost, well then, OK...so be it.
But to lose America because we can no longer pay our bills...because we can't manage our money....because we just won't take "NO" for an answer???? What a poor poor way to leave the world stage. One can only wonder what history 100 years from today will say about the demise of "the last, best hope for mankind" (hell, the history book will probably be written in Chinese. Bear in mind, the winners write the history.)
It’s all been long planned and engineered by these folks:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2475963/posts?page=60#60
Who have been convinced by the critters that the world MUST
be reduced to a global population of 200 million in order for mankind and the planet to survive at all.
Besides 200 million slaves are a lot easier to control than 6 billion plus.
Just my thoughts....
I remember, writing a long time ago, about a gotterdammerung, wchich is when there is a winnowing out of the weak and the strong coming through. We’re in the beginning of one right now. At the moment, the people with a certified skill are the ones who will be setting up shop and succeeding while the philosophy majors are going to be falling to pieces. In the Old South, the shopkeepers and farmers and people in construction survived while the ones who depended on slave labor and lived leisurely on their incomes fell to pieces. Same withe the French aristocrats who spent more than they had and lived on credit. I see a collapse coming, that should have happened sooner and the bailouts only postponed the inevitable. If we let families who lived like kings on a pauper’s income fall apart and make them start over, the rest of society would move ahead just fine. Poeple wiht not too much to lose are going to do just fine; those who stupidly made speculation a career choice are the ones who will fall.