The S&P has blasted its alarm in America's debt-ridden face and our citizens are responding as expected. They want the deficit cut but don't want to cut the unfunded middle-class entitlements that are doing the most fiscal damage. That would have been funny twenty years ago when we could afford deficit spending. It's not funny anymore. We've become addicted getting more from the government in cash than we pay in taxes.
The public education system has done a wonderful job of preparing us all to handle budget math. The consequences of this preparation will become apparent when the bond market forces our country into receivership. The drama over whether federal spending hits the debt limit next week is a sideshow. Washington will raise that limit and then the S&P's competitor rating agencies will start planning their own outlook downgrades (if they haven't written them already, just waiting to time the release).
My fellow Americans are asking for everything and will get nothing - except economic pain.
