Even if the federal budget were balanced tomorrow, the U.S. would still be in hock to the tune of $5 trillion. And regardless of which budget plan is adopted, taxpayers will be faced with an additional $1 trillion in debt over the next five years - all of which must somehow, someday be paid off.

• Those who own a piece of the debt in the form of U.S. debt instruments include banks, insurance companies, pension plans, mutual funds, foreign governments and individual savers.

• It is not true that nations cannot go bankrupt; Brazil, Argentina and Israel have all at one time or another hung by their fingernails at the bankruptcy precipice.

• Nor is the industrialized first world immune, since Britain effectively declared bankruptcy in 1976.