Listen Some of you are trying to over complicate the national debt. Its just the US government borrowing money from foreign banks. And that means a lot of interest is being paid out for interest that could be used for our benefit. No different than a household that's stupid enough to use credit cards for there day to day expenses. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that a lot of your money gets pissed away on interest rates that could be used for neccesities for the household. Credit is ALWAYS bad but sometimes a neccesity. There is no reason why tour government could not live off the tax money it receives, it just chooses not to so it can make other rich people richer for a few favours here and there.