> You do realize that plenty of US states carry a "deficit" right? Many states receive more money from the Federal budget than they pay back in.

That's not a "deficit." If that was a deficit, than every person in the US who pays less than $11,000 in tax would be running a "deficit." That's just the way governments work: the amount you pay in tax and the amount of services you get back from the government aren't always the same. But we do all have representation in the authority that chooses how to spend the pot of money.

Greece is different because they have sovereignty over their budget. Greece's taxes aren't collected by the ECB (with enforcement power) and there is no European body deciding how the taxes will be spent.

Note that plenty of countries receive EU funds as well (they're usually called net receivers) which is comparable to what you're talking about (see EU budgethttp://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jan/26/eu-budg...).

The Greek case of lying and spending way beyond any reasonable means does not compare to it.

This is because the EU is setup as more of a confederation (pre-constituttional U.S. or even early constitutional U.S. prior to 1830's)... and EU nations maintain a lot of their independance. Also, many states are feeling a crunch on their federal funding, which I think is an entirely separate issue in the way things are structured myself.

The U.S. also, historically speaking fought a very bloody civil war to keep states in the Union... (first rule of U.S. club, is you can never leave/quit U.S. club). Where as EU's history of unity/separation even in the last two centuries is very different. It's mostly a cultural difference.

That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more assertiveness to state level governments in the U.S. ... even though I don't agree with typical politics in, for example, Texas, I appreciate their assertiveness in recent years.

And for that these states accept the uniform monetary policy developed at federal level. Greece can have an argument if they would accept the same. But if you want to be independent from a fiscal point of view, then assume the whole thing.

But the USA is one country the EU is not