A common talking point amongst righties to explain why we must cut the budget / default on the debt / whatever is, "We're broke!" But are we? I examined the numbers to see:
So here's the numbers: Taxes last year were 26.9% of the economy. The deficit was 4% of the economy. So if we wanted to simply eliminate the deficit, we'd have to tax at 30.9% of the economy. The OECD average for advanced economies is that they tax 35%. The only advanced economy that has lower taxes than the United States is South Korea. So clearly it's not because we can't tax enough to pay our bills, it's because we don't want to tax enough to pay our bills. We're not broke, we're just deadbeats.
So what about that accumulated debt? Well, last year it hit 100% of the economy. What that means is that if we taxed 3.3% of the economy over the next 30 years, in much the same way you pay off a house, we'd have it paid off. And we'd still be taxed about the same as average OECD countries like Germany or Canada. Again, it's not that we're broke and can't pay it off. It's that we're deadbeats and don't want to pay it off.
Now, this isn't to say that we want to pay off the debt (we're paying 0% interest, why turn down free money?). Or that we want to stop deficit spending during a recession Or that to balance the budget once the recovery is solid we shouldn't deal with bloat to get spending down to where it was under the nightmare of peace and prosperity that was the Clinton administration, who managed a budget surplus while taxing only 29.5% of the economy (first order of business: Eliminate the TSA and return airport security to the airlines. I have other ideas too). All I'm saying is that next time your friends tell you, "the country's broke!", you can just smile and shake your head and say "no, we're not broke, we're just deadbeats." Because the numbers are the numbers, and that's what the numbers say -- we have plenty of money, as a nation, to pay our bills. We just don't want to.
(Note: Most numbers courtesy of The Heritage Foundation's website, though some are from OECD figures. They mostly match, and where they differ it's only by a slight amount).