You’re correct that you cannot default, but that doesn’t remove the problem, it just changes its shape. There are still plenty of bad things that can happen if you’re spending far more than you’re taxing.
And yes, you’re absolutely right to say that national debt isn’t the bogeyman that conservatives and neoliberals make it out to be. Austerity is a plague and we shouldn’t ever embrace that kind of idiotic thinking. I’m the first guy to shove Mark Blyth down the throat of every moronic con and neolib who acts like government debt is a credit card.
But that doesn’t mean that you should reflexively apply that defense of debt and spending in every circumstance without exception. The rate at which the US is accumulating debt, without anything to show for it, is a very real problem that shouldn’t simply be handwaved away. These things are not black and white. Details matter.
You’re correct that you cannot default, but that doesn’t remove the problem, it just changes its shape. There are still plenty of bad things that can happen if you’re spending far more than you’re taxing.
And yes, you’re absolutely right to say that national debt isn’t the bogeyman that conservatives and neoliberals make it out to be. Austerity is a plague and we shouldn’t ever embrace that kind of idiotic thinking. I’m the first guy to shove Mark Blyth down the throat of every moronic con and neolib who acts like government debt is a credit card.
But that doesn’t mean that you should reflexively apply that defense of debt and spending in every circumstance without exception. The rate at which the US is accumulating debt, without anything to show for it, is a very real problem that shouldn’t simply be handwaved away. These things are not black and white. Details matter.