Is the size of the U.S. national debt a pressing issue?

[Cassius]

Of course. To say that debt is not an issue is simply foolishness. Now, if the state has the resources to pay off said debt then it's not really a problem. On the other hand, if the only way to pay off debts is to borrow money in order to pay it off then you have a problem.

[Cassius]

Perhaps in the case of the United States, where there is little doubt that it will be able to pay off its debts, it's a less pressing issue. On the other hand it can be disastrous for countries that find themselves unable to pay off their debts. In these situations, attempting to pay off the debt by 'growing' the economy will not work, because since they are unable to pay off their debts in the first place the country in question will need to borrow even more in order to fund initiatives to create growth. A stage will eventually be reached where creditors simply stop giving loans, and thus the whole edifice comes crashing down, as the country is in the position of having large levels of debt without the means to pay it off. That is (I believe) something like what happened to Greece. Now of course, people might say 'well austerity caused Greece's problems'. Which is to some extent true, due to the inevitable social strife that results from such economic adjustments. But, at the end of the day, the Greeks had no money to 'grow' the economy, and I'm of the opinion that it is unfair to ask the taxpayers of other countries to bail out a country like Greece, which, by and large, brought most of it's problems on itself. Thus, such 'austerity' measures are simple, brutal neccessities.

From my own point of view, a balanced budget and a low level of debt is an ideal that a government should always strive for (though of course, in certain cases such as war and bank bailouts, it is neccessary for the government to go ahead with it's actions balanced budget or no). It's simply a matter of 'safety first' (I don't like it when government's try to live dangerously), as all sorts of problems can arise when a government finds itself unable to pay off it's debts.

[Cassius]

Democracy is the enemy of responsible decisions.

Not that I think democracy is by definition a bad thing. There is much that is good and virtuous in it. But, human nature being what it is, there is a tendency, a perfectly understandable one, only to care about one's own interests. Now, since democracy is a system whose main selling point is taking everybody's views into account, this understandably causes the machine of government to overheat somewhat.