In all the coverage I've heard on this issue, no matter what the descriptions and characterizations and justifications for any part of it, not a single person has ever mentioned that all of it began with someone, somewhere, sometime willingly and consciously accepting money and promising to pay it back. All discussion erases the fundamental character of the issue, which has become par for the course.

My point is that they have as a consequence also annihilated the concept of personal responsibility. Actually, though, it's more subtle: personal responsibility overtly is still as vital and important as it ever was, but certain people in certain situations have any number of excuses none of which are worth mentioning.

But the really nefarious part takes place in the minds of the purported "victims". They will accept whatever excuse is handed over to absolve them, and the excuse is silently transformed into "justice".

So in the final analysis, the most important part of the whole affair is not abuse of the public treasury or extraconstitutional actions by the executive branch or any such thing. It's the loss of integrity in a whole generation.

In my view, yes, that's exactly what the Devil would most desire.