# Will The US Ultimately Default On Its Debt? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 13, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485 "2011-01-13T18:13:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MilTan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485/21 "2011-01-14T15:01:03Z")
> [@Walther\_Ego](#): > > What would the inflation be if the US decided to pay the debt right now with freshly printed notes? Well, there’s about $1 trillion in currency in circulation, about $2 trillion when you count demand accounts and maybe $8 trillion when you throw in savings and money market accounts. The US debt is about $14 trillion, so monetizing it completely would represent an absurd increase in the money supply. I couldn’t say what the effect on inflation would be, but I think it’d be pretty rough. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485/22 "2011-01-14T15:22:52Z")
America as a whole could save over $1T by switching to UHC. That’d put a fair bite in the debt. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485/23 "2011-01-14T16:20:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > America as a whole could save over $1T by switching to UHC. That’d put a fair bite in the debt. The “deficit hawks” are already trying to undo what little progress was made on health care reform. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485/24 "2011-01-14T18:13:18Z")
Frankly, there is NO will to cut government spending…on any level. Take the State of California (9th largest economy in the world)-they were still hiring people while going broke. In fact, they were allowing public employees to retire (on enormous pensions) and then hiring them back as consulstants. Los Angeles opened the most expensive public school ever built. My conclusion is that politicians will never cut spending-it must be imposed upon them. I think that govenment will grow to the point that it is impossible to fund-and the “underground” economy will explode. That is one of the reason why people are employing illegal aliens-it is cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485/25 "2011-01-14T20:40:29Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > My conclusion is that politicians will never cut spending-it must be imposed upon them. By whom? Voters are even more loathe to cut specific programs than politicians, so I doubt any voter initiatives will gain any traction. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485/26 "2011-01-14T21:02:29Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Well, there’s a freshman Republican [who said he “didn’t know” what would happen with a default.](http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/05/mulvaney-debt-ceiling-doesnt/) > > Why can’t he, and others who think like him, stand against everyone else on the assumption the results (whatever they think they are) can be blamed on the White House? He said in your cite that he wants to see some effort to reduce the deficit before he could vote for a debt limit increase. I think it’s a stupid position to take, but he is not saying he’d never vote to increase the debt limit. I think when push comes to shove, a majority of politicians understand the stakes no matter how much they bad-mouth it before the vote. And I will lay very generous odds on any bet regarding defaulting on the debt this year, in case you want to make it interesting. No way default is going to happen. Zero. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-us-ultimately-default-on-its-debt/567485.md?page=1)