Believe it or not, I'm pretty much with you on this, Steve.

You're right. We can have whatever we can afford. It's a matter of establishing a collective will for what the most important things are that we desire and are willing to pay for. The problem is that the electorate has been inattentive and our elected representatives have made no effort whatsoever to establish any priorities for over a decade. They have been on a wild-eyed spending spree and continue to do so. They are continuing to spend on whatever they and the special interests they represent desire, paying for it with borrowed money and by doing so obligating future generations of Americans to pay for their self-serving largesse. So far, those that have been agreeable to lend the U.S. as much as it wants to borrow have continued to do so. That will not continue.

We should be forewarned that this situation is just as ridiculous and unsustainable as the value of houses increasing 10% a year and banks being willing to lend money to people who clearly can't repy the loans. We know what the outcome of that period of lunacy has been. As we told ourselves after the financial crisis became evident, common sense should have told uas this couldn't continue. The near future holds a similar and dramatic outcome in my opinion. Common sense should tell us that.

If you are referring to the need for healthcare reform as insanity, I disagree. For the same reasons I noted in an earlier response in this thread, I support such reform and the costs that accrue to it. What is necessary is a long hard look at the other stuff that our government spends money on. A long hard look at expenditures that should be eliminated in order to afford things that are truly important to our society.

There's no sense confusing this thread with another recitation of spending reductions that are possible. But I might start with stopping wars that we can't afford, military expenditures that we don't need, and a deep across-the-board cut in government spending on everything else. Those would be "way of life changing" cost reductions. We'll either do it ourselves or those that until now have loaned us money will do it for us.