Oops

"The auction is big news because now it's showing that maybe the Chinese don't want our bonds."

To repeat a question I've been asking for a decade: If the federal government cannot find lenders willing to continue financing us, what then? Will the federal government do what individuals and state and local governments have been forced to do for the last 18 months and make real cuts in spending? (By "real" I mean an actual reduction in the number of dollars going out the door, not a reduction in a previously-planned increase.) Or will a "mystery buyer" show up at the 11th hour and save the day? How would anyone know? Has this already happened? Is it time to dust off the tinfoil hat yet?