Scott,

Thanks. That occurred to me during the 92 elections, when G.H.W Bush had been ranting on about government debt and Ross Perot observed that while everyone plays the markets, the really rich keep most of their money in bonds.....

One other idea that occurred to me around then was Bush was pushing the line item veto, which obviously would never pass congress, as it would take much of their power of budgeting away. So what they could do, if they really wanted to make it work, would be to have each member of congress assign percentage values to each item, put the bills back in order of preference, then the president gets to draw the line. Actual budgeting. Preferences and limits.

Though it blows up the banks scam. As it is, eventually they trade the piles of public debt for whatever remains of the public commons, parks, highways, etc, then we all become serfs again.