Quote from pspr:
The gov won't have any problem paying the debt. The Fed can always just print what ever money it needs. That's what it's doing now.
The problem is that printing lots of money leads to lots of inflation which means the Fed has to raise interest rates or there will be even more inflation. The other two solutions are to borrow money (from China, EU or whom ever) or to cut spending.
Cutting spending is out. Congress and the Pres are incapable is reducing spending. In fact, they (especially Democrats) use crisis as an excuse to spend even more. Bush spent plenty with a good economy and the Dems just point to that as an excuse and are going to make Bush's spending look like child's play. Only, we don't have a growing economy to increase tax revenues now and won't under Obama.
So, we can borrow more but who is going to have the ability to finance our debt? China is about done and re-floating our existing debt is going to get harder.
That leaves, PRINT MORE MONEY. A dollar collapse and hyper-inflation will be inevitable. People who have saved money, retired, live on fixed incomes are all screwed in this environment. Those who have hard assets may do OK depending upon the assets. Maintaining purchasing power will be the goal. Those who owe money (mostly the lower middle class) will be saved. As money devalues, debts can be repaid with cheaper dollars.
A fourth alternative is to send the U.S. and possibly the world economies into the tank for a long time. That will keep inflation down, it will allow government to spend, spend, spend. And it will make the masses dependent upon the government for food and shelter. This seems to be the most likely outcome. However, it is a recipe to much more government control and possibly an Orwellian state.
Take your pick. Every outcome is bad given our current path.