[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

And I think that's the key problem that I've seen others post as well - no one can agree on how to do it, so let's not bother. That's not a solution either.

If no one can agree, then doing something across-the-board so everyone feels the pain becomes necessary. There is no "easy" solution, there will be pain. But the longer we delay, the worse the pain is going to get.

We can talk all we want about "good" levels of deficit, but as long as that debt grows, and the interest on it, a larger percentage of our taxes go to pay that interest, and we have less for all the other things we need to spend it on. Eventually we reach a point where it's all going to interest, and not paying off anything else. Or we default on that debt. Both are pain, big pain.

So I understand that getting the budget balanced and paying down the debt won't be easy, will hurt, and will cause problems, I just think the result of NOT doing it will be far, far worse. Maybe I'll get "lucky" and be dead by then, but I don't think so, I think it's coming much much sooner than that, based on history and the magnitude of the debt.

I'll admit I haven't studied this much, but a world with zero new U.S. Treasury debt would be risky. Where would all that money go? How would that change the global power structure?

edit: That doesn't mean I think any debt level is sustainable.