Take one look at the fiscal disaster staring this nation in the face. The United States is now $37 trillion in debt. Multi-trillion-dollar deficits stretch as far as the eye can see. Social Security and Medicare carry more than $100 trillion in unfunded obligations. The list goes on.

At some point, the supply of U.S. debt will overwhelm demand, and the federal government will no longer be able to borrow at reasonable interest rates. That moment will mark the ultimate financial reckoning — worse than anything this country has ever experienced.

How did the nation get here? The problem is not ignorance or bad arithmetic. The problem is a deeply flawed political system that repeatedly incentivizes the wrong choices.

The Founders were part-time statesmen whose duty was to put the long-term i

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