this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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I'm actually not. I'm saying that if you have the ability to print your own money, it is impossible to default on debt owed in that currency. It's not a license to print money, it's an understanding of a logical conclusion.
This large number is waved around to justify austerity for the poor and without a shred of irony advocate for tax cuts (mostly for the wealthy). I'm just demonstrating why it isn't the boogeyman it's made out to be.
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.