That line about the people and/or the politicians voting themselves money from others is from Alexander de Toqueville:”The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
So I call events like the debt ceiling and payroll tax bump “crises” “de Toqueville moments.”
http://wp.me/p1FiCk-30
http://wingright.org/2011/07/24/the-de-toqueville-moment-will-we-endure/
http://wingright.org/2011/08/03/more-de-toqueville-moments-yes-they-want-to-tax-and-spend/
(and this piece that likens libertarianism to nihilism and predicts the end of the Republic at the hand of objectivists and nihilists. http://wingright.org/2011/09/02/a-little-philosophy-a-lot-of-optimism/ )
There are times when our nation decides which way to tilt: Toward survival through personal responsibility or to take from our neighbors for our own comfort vs. going Galt and abandoning our communities altogether.