The Biggest Lie In America Today:

"We're broke!"

Nope.

“The U.S. government is not broke,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. “There’s no evidence that the market is treating the U.S. government like it’s broke.”

The U.S. today is able to borrow at historically low interest rates, paying 0.68 percent on a two-year note that it had to offer at 5.1 percent before the financial crisis began in 2007. Financial products that pay off if Uncle Sam defaults aren’t attracting unusual investor demand. And tax revenue as a percentage of the economy is at a 60-year low, meaning if the government needs to raise cash and can summon the political will, it could do so.

I'm just shocked. But more on that last sentence:

Americans also aren’t overtaxed compared with residents of other advanced nations. In a 28-nation survey, only Chile and Mexico reported a lower total tax burden than the U.S., according to the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.

In 2009, taxes of all kinds claimed 24 percent of U.S. GDP, compared with 34.3 percent in the U.K., 37 percent in Germany and 48.2 percent in Denmark, the most heavily taxed OECD member.

“By the standard of U.S. history, by the standard of other countries -- by the standard of where else are we going to get the money -- increased tax revenues have to be a part of the solution,” said Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at Harvard University who advises the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York. 

Chile and Mexico: yeah, those are the sort of countries we now run with! Let's cut some more programs to feed hungry kids; we'll beat them yet!

Of course, those snooty European countries get universal health care, universal retirement plans, and universal Pre-K-20 education for that extra money they pay in taxes. We here in the US have a different system: we give the difference and a whole lot more to corporations who overcharge for all of those things. Corporations that also buy and pay for the political and media institutions that are supposed to be addressing these very problems, but instead focus on teacher tenure, gay marriage, and terrorists with super powers who want to eat your babies.

How's that working out for you, Mr. and Mrs. America?