If America's Founding Fathers were clear on anything, it was that deficits could not be tolerated, says best-selling author and political historian Larry Schweikart.

So what would the founders say about the current economy and crushing U.S. debt?

“The founders were very clear on issues of debt,” Schweikart says, “so certainly they would want to see our fiscal house in order.”

The debt crisis is only one symptom of a nation that is more divided now than “at the time of the Civil War,” Schweikart says.

“It is very deeply divided. And it's more divided than, I think, at the time of the Civil War, though less likely to involve violence because it's not sectional in nature. But the divisions involve a large segment of people who became heavily dependent on the government, especially the federal government, for their daily existence,” he points out....