And he may be right. So far we’ve been lucky enough to be able to hide some severe problems by pushing them out to the state level. That will start to fade next year and many of the troubled pension funds start to run out of money in a few years. What happens then? The embarrassing and irresponsible failure by the Democrats to raise taxes (thus, their choice to crush the deficit) is going to be a costly mistake. If a Democrat can’t make that argument to the public who somehow now cares about the deficit, then we’re in big trouble. It’s only going to get worse and the Democrats are very much a part of this problem.

The U.S. dollar will be safe for the next six to 12 months, because global markets are focused on the euro zone’s troubles, Chinese central bank adviser Li Daokui said on Wednesday when asked about U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan to extend tax cuts for all Americans. But Li, an academic adviser on the People’s Bank of China monetary policy committee, said the fiscal health of the United States was in fact worse than Europe’s, and that U.S. bond prices and the dollar would fall when the European economic situation stabilizes. He was speaking on the sidelines of a financial forum in Beijing.