did the united states of america ever declare bankruptcy?
No. And as a fellow Michigander, let me tell you to FEEL FREE TO USE CAPITAL LETTERS. THEY ARE FREE!
no, but more importantly, did ee cummings?
Why would we declear bankruptcy? Other countries owe us!
How’d you like to be the bill collecter stuck with THAT account? We got nukes! Just try and collect!! Mwahahaha!!!
Who the heck would you file with?
Well we’re not far from moral bankruptcy. 
sigh This should be sub-headed: When GQ threads end up in the BBQ Pit by mistake.
Welcome to the SDMB, ** factoryrat **. On th’ off-chance that I’m right, you might want to appeal to the mods to close this, and start your questions under General Questions. Just a thought.
Yes, it’s alarmist. Those were the executive orders taking the US off the gold standard. As I read it, Perry v. US is a case where someone has an old gold certificate. The executive order said that gold certificates would be worth a certain price per ounce of gold. This guy tried to cash in his certificate and the government wanted to compensate him at the price in the executive order. He argued that he should be compensated at the current price of gold on the market, and the executive order was unconstitutional, because, by paying the lower price, the government was unconstitutionally taking his property. The court ruled it wasn’t.
Cool. Thanks for that, Captain Amazing. Stuff like that page is probably what sparked the OP in the first place. Cheers! 
in soviet russia, bankruptcy declares you
It is a little known fact that the U.S. government did in fact go bankrupt back in 1995 because Bill Clinton spent a good portion of the federal budget on hookers. He covered it up by selling the White House and capital building to France to raise money. We rent those buildings back from France now rather than own them outright. When George W took office, he tried to buy the White House back so that he wouldn’t have to worry about eviction but the U.S.'s credit scores were still too low to get a mortage. That is why it is such a big deal that France opposes the war with Iraq. The U.S. knows that if we do something that they don’t like, we will be back out on our asses in a New York second.
You forgot to mention that Goerge hasn’t been paying the rent because France has refused to fix the running toilet in The Executive Shitter.
As you can see from this story, Bush considered bankruptcy but found a better solution!
Actually, it might not be a bad idea to post stuff like this in the Pit. This way, we can cut directly to the smartass comments and political bile. It saves a step.
You’re quite correct, jklann. Do you suppose you could get the rabid anti-Bush and anti-Clinton camps to commence exercising even 1% of Critical Thinking skills?
Damn, I was anticipating a career as a venture capitalist.