How Does 40 Percent Less Government Sound to You?

It's not looking good. Talks to raise the debt ceiling are dragging on with less than two weeks to go before our nation goes into default. While some Conservatives have pooh-poohed the talk of financial Armageddon, at the very least the failure to raise the borrowing limit will call for immediate, drastic cuts to our infrastructure.

Hell, that's not so bad, right? As it is, the GOP has been complaining for most of the Obama administration about the typical liberal orgy of spending, so a bit of a haircut is probably in order. Luckily, The Atlantic magazine broke down a few of the things that will have to be immediately jettisoned if a deal isn't met.

Don't worry, there will still be money to pay for Social Security, Medicare, interest payments on the debt, military payrolls and veteran's benefits. But what will go away overnight? No biggie.

-- No more maintenance or security of the nation's nuclear arsenal.
-- Get out of jail free cards for all our federal prisoners, because none of the guards will be paid and vendors will not deliver food, medical supplies, electricity, etc.
-- No one watching the border stations and all illegal immigrants currently in detention set free because we don't have the money to put them on a plane and send them home.
-- No fuel or electricity for our troops abroad, leaving them stuck in the desert with billions of dollars worth of equipment.
-- Forget about taking a trip overseas, since all of our embassies would have to close down.
-- No help from the federal government to fight wildfires or floods.
-- All those people living in housing projects put out in the street since their Section 8 vouchers would not be paid.
-- Home-schooling for all you public school kids, since that federal money for local school districts won't be in the mail and teachers won't get paid.
-- Oh, and forget about those guaranteed student loans for college.
-- Also, no more mortgage market, no more TSA to guard our airports, or air traffic controllers, for that matter and no more unemployment payments for the out of work.

Does 40 percent less government sound good to you?