We hear lots of goofy crap about how they are our best customer and biggest trade partner. This has it's misconceptions amongst canadians. The majority of trade is in parts that go back and forth to eventually form a whole item for sale. Auto parts is a great example of how the misconception is perpetuated.
If taxes go up so will interest rates on all that debt and deficit. Even if everyone did forfeit $1000 that still doesn't even come close to the 14 TRILLION of debt they have to deal with. paying it off in one shot would bankrupt every last person in America and all it's little possesions around the globe.
Puerto Rico is where they seem to be testing various solutions and it's not going over too well down there.
There is no way out other than a complete crash and defaulting along the lines of Iceland or go to war with those they owe which would probably be the outcome of defaulting. Catch 22
Perhaps they could sell the Aleutian Islands- the only thing they are good for is bad weather systems.