Most people don’t realize that the collapse actually improved the lives of the people living in the provinces; no longer where they facing prohibitive taxation and ruinous economic dictas from Rome. Rome lost control because people didn’t want to listen anymore and the Roman Empire lacked the funds to force them to obey.

I still don’t see how these congressmen expect to pay for the current programs, let alone after taking over even more sectors of the U.S. economy. Either the economy will collapse, or they will repudiate the debt, after which no-one will loan them money anymore. Either way, they will lose the ability to force people to obey them.