Minnesota government shutdown reflects widespread budget paralysis

By Neil Irwin and Rachel Weiner,
WashPost
Published: July 1

There is a giant gap between what many of the world’s governments have promised and what they can afford. Now, the headlines from the across the United States and overseas show what happens when the clunky machinery of democracy goes about trying to close that gap.

The latest: The Minnesota government shut down Friday, locking families out of state parks on a normally busy holiday weekend after the Democratic governor and Republican-controlled legislature failed to reach agreement on whether to close a projected $5 billion budget deficit in part with tax increases.

It is just one skirmish in the great reckoning of our age. The United States can maintain the retiree health benefits, costly wars, public pensions and social welfare programs promised to a generation of citizens. Or it can maintain the low taxes to which Americans have become accustomed. But it will be nearly impossible to maintain both.

Something has to give, and figuring out what that something is will be the crux of many of the great political battles happening around the world.

(More here.)