[onlyrealcuzzo]

> We need not only a balanced budget amendment, but massive spending/entitlement cuts and austerity, as well as boost in GDP/exports because we can't service our own debt and have relied on other nations to buy our bonds.

Massive spending/entitlement cuts aren't popular.

~40% of the country is on either Medicaid, SNAP, Medicare, or Social Security.

That's ~46% of Federal spending. Besides Republicans for SNAP - it's completely untouchable.

~12% of Federal spending is the military. With all the wars going on - good luck cutting that.

After interest - you only have ~16% of spending left to cut. And that's the stuff I think most people are in agreement we actually want!

You can't squeeze blood from a stone.

What's most likely to happen is that instead of ~40% of US adults not working - that number will decrease - and you'll have a larger, more productive tax base and less people on entitlements - strictly due to market forces.

[HDThoreaun]

The US really needs to fix its healthcare system. Spending is completely out of control. Our 17% of gdp on healthcare is a solid 5% higher than any other country even though our GDP per capita is among the highest, and it ends up with these massive entitlement programs for people that can't afford healthcare.

There's definitely a lot of low hanging fruit to be picked here but the special interests are so entrenched that the political will would need to be much higher than it currently is.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

> Our 17% of gdp on healthcare is a solid 5% higher than any other country even though our GDP per capita is among the highest, and it ends up with these massive entitlement programs for people that can't afford healthcare.

The US is ridiculously unhealthy.

I'm not sure how much more you expect to spend compared to France - when the median citizen is morbidly obese, sedentary, and an alcoholic or a smoker or a diabetic.

Considering the health of our citizens - 5% more doesn't sound bad.