Kevin Connolly's take on America

[Undertoad]

An aversion to paying taxes and an addiction to public and private debt do not add up, and American voters may well be left to conclude that they have awarded themselves a lifestyle that they can not really afford.

The expression for this is "whistling past the graveyard". Dear Europe: we regret to inform you that endless criticism of the US will not actually help your financial crisis in any way. It turns out that having no aversion to paying taxes does not really lead to financial security. It's not working out for you, are we the first to point this out?

In fact a portion of the Ireland bailout money comes from the IMF, which means US taxpayers and capital is now heavily involved helping you get your sorry asses back into a responsible debt position.