"Nevertheless, once we were up to our knees in financial doo doo, they did the correct thing, which was to facilitate the government leveraging up while the private sector was leveraging down."
wrong again.
the government will never be able to outlaw the business cycle. it will only exacerbate the bust when it finally occurs.
"These two things are: 1. bring medical costs in line with the other industrialized nations --that will require breaking the medical cartel, there is no other way, and 2. Bring per capita defense costs in line with the other "
it will never happen.
if it does r&d for advances in medicine will disappear.
an expanding government sector, both directly and indirectly is destroying the US. your agitation to defang the defense sector and to have a one payer health system cannot save the US from the perils of excessive debt. europe is broke with lower defense and health costs than the US. because of its over bloated public sector and its pension obligation to gov't workers. the U.S. is no different.