We're not in that bad shape imo. Look at Japan, almost 2.5x our government debt to GDP and nobody talks about default. In fact, they're the most indebted nation according to this metric, but unlike other countries, most of their debt is yen denominated so they can inflate away their debt if they want to. Same with the US.

Of course there are other factors, but I don't see it as an imminent problem.

Harvard - you're nuts.

OP- I would love to reduce the debt through less entitlement programs. However, I don't believe that it is very likely to happen. I'm trying to avoid politics here, but giving people something for nothing keeps getting people elected.

I would not want to pay higher taxes for more benefits because I don't want benefits from the government. In my opinion, I can spend my money better than the government can. Keep my hard earned money in my wallet and I'll purchase the "benefits" I need.

I actually would be willing to pay more in taxes to reduce the debt IF (and HUGE IF) I believed that the government wasn't a huge waste. If entitlements and spending were in order I wouldn't object to something like a 2% increase for all Americans for 7 years that goes straight towards paying off the debt. The problem is now that there is zero fiscal responsibility and any additional money we paid in to the system would currently just be wasted on another ridiculous entitlement.

When i was in grade school i always wondered why we didn't just print more money to pay off the people we owed.

One of the big problems i see with inflating the debt away, besides the usual negatives of inflation, is that it wouldn't actually fix most of the debt issues.

Medicare and Medicaid are badly broken and printing more money doesn't fix that at all it just means we now pay the hospitals with dollars that are worthless.

The other big dog in the debt problem is Social Security which is indexed to inflation. So hyperinflation just means more worthless bills going to my grandma so she can buy pills with Medicare. Doesn't solve the problem at all

Two major issues most people ignore when debating this question:

1) What is an American exactly? There is a lot less clear cut, old school American patriotism these days. Americans have seemingly adopted globalization and internationalism so much faster than anyone else it is having some very adverse effects in terms of how we approach subjects which may be harmful to our own statehood.

2) Debt is inexorably tied not to the ability to pay it back, but to the benefit of the creditors in actually attempting to collect. Anyone in today's world who went about a rigorous collection campaign to collect on America's debts (foreign/domestic, corporate/federal) would pretty quickly find that they were cutting off their nose to spite their face.

I rail about the debt as much as anyone, but in reality nobody is coming to collect. The Fed wouldn't be printing away if they didn't know this and cold, hard and ugly as the truth may be...the dollar is backed by the near omnipotent power of the Armed Forces. Everything else is just us chickens cackling about what the farmer is up to.

Entitlements are out of control, government spending is insane, politicians are fucking retarded and the people who receive entitlements keep getting liberals elected. My hopes are very slim.

      "It's never too early to learn that the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayer's teet until they       
       have sore, chapped nipples."

-- Ron Swanson

Pay more in taxes....

One of those phrases that doesn't mean much without careful definition.

The government cannot set tax REVENUES. The government only controls tax RATES.

Only class warfare can justify higher tax RATES as an attempt to increase tax REVENUES. We know high tax rates will shift behavior from productive uses (investment, consumption) to tax avoidance. Companies will relocate, individuals will buy muni-bonds, factories will be built elsewhere.

Do we want to beat the debt with a larger slice of an ever shrinking pie? Or do we want to beat the debt on the way to prosperity by taking a smaller slice of an ever GROWING pie?

Make the US the most tax-friendly developed nation on earth. Strengthen the dollar. Cut bureaucratic regulations. Slash entitlement spending.

1. SS - raise age, start needs based testing, slowly phase out (i.e., anyone under 25 never receives any benefits)
2. reduce military - do we really need bases all over Europe?
3. Other

I personally don't expect shit from our gov't so start reducing now. Too bad so many dead beats suck off the govt's teet.

Simply cut the size of government. It really isn't hard. People will have to make do with less. Not going to happen because half this nations gets something for nothing.

We have been too focused with short term growth. Cutting the government and reducing taxes will allow people to have more of the funds they so desperately need. Plans to cut the government always evaporate once the dire need passes.

I would agree with you if I thought we were dealing with a sane population. You know as well as I do that the second the economy rebounds people wont give two shits about reducing the deficit.

Make politicians work for free and we will see the debt cut

Eokpar02's guide to cutting the deficit:

Cut military spending by 70%, essentially setting it back a decade. All in, our military spent 1 trillion dollars last year, the overwhelming majority of that was outside of Afghanistan and Iraq. Get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, most of the numerous spying agencies that's main job is to invade the privacy of Americans. Get out of Afghanistan, stop spending money on large military projects.

Savings 700 billion.

Cut medicare. Raise the eligibility age and pursue those who steal from medicare with the same vigor that the DEA pursues marijuana growers. After all the cuts of waste and fraud, block grant the money and give it to the states. Allow Americans to buy pharmaceuticals from other countries. Get rid of all the restrictions for buying healthcare.

Savings 400 billion

Social Security: Raise the age and slowly start phasing out the program. I don't need the government to manage my money.

Savings 100 billion

Get rid of all the stupid, redundant and crappy expenditures. Get rid of the DEA, ATF, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Education.

Value: 600 billion+

I would couple these cuts in spending to fairly large cuts in taxes. I would get rid of the payroll tax and some other taxes.

Hmmm, I like EOK's plan.

OOOooooooooh. Tax cuts. I like, I like.

America needs a strong military. We don't need bases around the world. American military power is the ultimate free rider problem with our allies. We protect the world and they spend their peace dividend at home.

We should have a well-equipped, well-trained, modern military. We shouldn't have bureaucratic bloat and Congressmen forcing the Pentagon to buy planes made in their district.

I would love to see some proposals from the think tanks on how to make the Pentagon more private sector oriented. How do we incentivize them to spend money like a private firm?

600 bil is peanuts compared to 14 trillion. Needs to be a combination of cut backs on expenditures and increase in tax revenue.

I know the US has a huge debt problem, but can we explore the implications of maintaining/worsening debt situation? I know inflation is one of them as we will need more dollars to pay off some debt. What are the other things that could happen?

There's no revenue problem, HarvardOrBust. Revenues are up 20% in the last 8 years but spending is up 80%. Spending is up multiple times more over the last 30 years compared to revenues. It's simply not the case that we need to raise taxes.

yankeez, majority of US debt is dollar denominated. In a high-inflation scenario, debt becomes cheaper.

VTech, I think a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases would be the most effective in reduce the deficit. Maybe not under tax increases, but filling loopholes, collecting taxes more efficiently, etc is the key.