What if the massive debt leads investors to stop buying treasury bonds, crashing the dollar? And, like, what if this happens soon? In,say, the next 10 to 15 years and not in some distant future when everyone currently reading this article has gone to meet his maker? Does Mr. Clarke think there's a limit to how much debt we should run up? If so, what is it? It must be more than $9 trillion over the next decade. If we are so impoverished now, why bother taxing as much as we do? Why not cut taxes 75% and borrow whatever we need? The rich futurepeople can pay it! Of course the rich futurepeople will be impoverished compared to their own future, so they can keep passing it along!