Thank you for pointing out the very things that have been plaguing my brain while reading down this entire thread. Our founders would be appalled, all right! -- at US for allowing this to either happen or for allowing it to continue!!
Do you s'pose that the framers of the Constitution might have set some limits on the power of Congress to borrow money on the national credit? Might they have been a little clearer on the subject of taxes? Or on the separation of church and state? Or on the war powers of the president?And this right here. You and I both know EXACTLY when that started. Taxes? Before a certain time there weren't any. Oh, but with public education getting its roots in the same place you need taxes to pay for it. War powers of the President? I think they were absolutely clear about that, but hey they were absolutely clear about national banks too, but Federalists, Whigs, and later Republicans (the 19th and early 20th century ones) didn't care about that either.